Into the Wilderness

Wednesday 19th June 2024, Ropewalk Meadow, Loamhole Dingle

We have visited Loamhole Dingle many times in the past. Generally, we start from the car park and follow the stream in the bottom of the valley before rising after lunch onto the Ropewalk path along the western flank to complete the circuit. 

Ropewalk Meadow arrives towards the end of this path.

And as by that time we are usually tired and ready to go home, it receives less attention than it deserves.

So…

This time the outing was specifically aimed at visiting the meadow first.

Then…

Rather than do the "usual" circuit in reverse order we visited other meadows called Wilderness Meadows, into which we had never set foot in before.

Having parked at the Community car park we were faced with the short but stiff uphill walk to the entrance to Ropewalk Meadow.

My heart sank when some of the group, out of habit, made for the pool to follow our usual route!

However, this deviation was soon nipped in the bud, and we huffed and puffed up, lugging our equipment, to the target area.

Following the track to the site we noticed a largish yellow daisy-like flower, not unlike many other largish yellow daisy-like flowers, but this was Leopard’s-bane. And on the plant posed a Swollen-thighed beetle, Oedemera nobilis.

Photograph: David Williams

Patchy sunshine greeted us as we arrived in the meadow and set about doing what we enjoy doing.

I am very fortunate that attendees take lots of photographs of what they find and send them to me to allow me to include them in the report. Most of these include the time they were taken as part of their background information. I can then use this information to put them into some sort of order for presenting in the report.

On this occasion only about half the photographs I received included a time taken, so, I have had to guess where they may have found! 

What is certain is that they were found during the day!

We spent the morning mooching around Ropewalk Meadow before lunching and moving on.

The meadow was adorned with plenty of orchids, betony and many other flowers. This in turn attracted, by current low standards, quite a few Meadow brown butterflies, but perhaps not as many as it deserved, plus a few other species.

What did we see and photograph?

A tortoise beetle, Cassida vibex.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A Hairy snail, Trochulus hispidus;

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A labyrinth spider, Agelena labyrinthica.

Photograph: Neil Nash

A robber fly, Dioctria linearis.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A weevil, Tatianaerhynchites aequatus, known as the Apple fruit rhynchites.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A Worm slug, Boettgerilla pallens.

Photograph: Neil Nash

A distinctive micro-moth, Pseudargyrotoza conwagana.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A mirid bug, Dicyphus errans.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A long-horn beetle, Stenocorus meridianus.

Photograph: John Martin

And a Welsh chafer, Hoplia philanthus.

Photograph: David Williams

There being no seats in the meadow we noticed a few large cut logs in a woodland clearing off the meadow. These looked too good to pass by and we lunched in that area. The “have-nots” (i.e. those without portable seats) perched on the logs and the “haves” (those with seats) scattered around the area.

There was a brief shower.

Lunch over we moved into the area known as The Wilderness, a series of three meadows that run alongside the main footpath.

This is a view of the first of the meadows.

These were large expanses of flower-rich grasslands, surrounded by hedges and woodland.

A host of Common spotted orchids littered the grassland!!

At this point we became rather strung out as we wandered around these meadows, with one or two reluctant to leave Ropewalk Meadow and move on into the wilderness.

By now the weather was very pleasant in sunshine, obscured periodically by passing cloud, but, surprisingly and disappointingly, there was no obvious increase in invertebrate activity, reflecting the situation we had been finding for several weeks now – good habitat but low numbers.

What did we find?

Another weevil, Strophosoma melanogrammum.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Woundwort shieldbug.

Photograph: David Williams

A micro-moth, Argyresthia brockeella.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A cranefly, Limonia phragmitidis.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Eventually we all regathered around a gate into the second meadow. But our work continued.

Photograph: John Martin

And invertebrates continued to pose for photographs.

A 4th instar nymph of a Common green grasshopper.

Photograph: David Williams

A further weevil Hypera postica, known as the Clover leaf weevil.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

And a 4th instar nymph of a Meadow grasshopper.

Photograph: David Williams

In a damper area of the meadows some Bristle Club-rush, Isolepis setacea, was spotted.

Photograph: John Martin

This had been recorded in the area before…

In 1892!!

We extracted ourselves from the meadow onto the main path and started to head home.

I was distracted by a flying object.

Fortunately, for once, I was able to follow it as it landed on a nettle leaf, then flew to a nearby Hazel leaf.

A Hazel leaf-roller.

Photograph: David Williams

The name derives from the behaviour of the female which, prior to egg-laying, will cut a slit in a hazel leaf, then roll the edge of the leaf into a cylindrical structure into which she lays an egg.

Nearby a Black-headed cardinal beetle was noticed.

Photograph: David Williams

Finally, as we made our way back to the cars, the larva of a sawfly was observed.

Photograph: John Martin

It was identified later as Tenthredo zona.

We made it, at last, to the cars and returned home after an interesting day in some very nice habitat.

Wednesday 26th June 2024, Mason’s Bank and Lower Shortditch Turbary SWT Reserves

I was away for the visits to these two neighbouring upland reserves in the southwest of the county. I have not received a summary of the day to pass on other than it was HOT and they made some interesting finds.

Fortunately, I have been sent some photographs of some of their interesting finds and am able to include these.

The first stop was Mason’s Bank. 

This site is an ancient heath that was planted with conifers in the 1960s. When the trees were felled at the turn of the century, heather and bilberry returned. As the heathland regenerates, so its characteristic wildlife is returning.

Clearly beetles attracted the attention as the photographs show!

A ground beetle, Loricera pallicornis.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A weevil, Phyllobius pyri.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A ladybird, Nephus redtenbacheri.

Photograph: David Williams

A large click beetle, Prosternon tessellatum.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A second click beetle, Hypnoidus riparius.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A second ladybird, Rhyzobius litura.

Photograph: David Williams

Moving on…

The second site, Lower Shortditch Turbary is also heathland that was used in the past for turf and peat cutting.

More of a mixed bag of insects from this site.

A bee-fly. Not the relatively common Dark-edged, bee-fly, Bombylius major, 

Or the fairly recent arrival Dotted bee-fly, Bombylius discolor, 

But the Western bee-fly, Bombylius canescens. This, currently, seems to be local to the southwest tip of the county.

Photograph: David Williams

A ground beetle, Pterostichus madidus.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A nymph of the Spiked shieldbug.

Photograph: David Williams

A Small grass shieldbug.

Photograph: David Willliams

An Orchid beetle, Dascillus cervinus.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A Common green grasshopper.

Photograph: David Williams

And finally, a Bishop’s Mitre.

Photograph: David Williams

My thanks Severn Gorge Countryside Trust and Shropshire Wildlife Trust for granting us permission to enjoy ourselves and to the photographers for providing their excellent images for this report.