No mere Mere

Wednesday 23rd July 2025, Aqualate Mere 

I was an absentee on the day and am grateful to Nigel (not the same one as my last stand-in) for the following report.

According to the information board at the entrance to Aqualate Mere:-

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

“Aqualate Mere is the largest of the West Midland meres; glacial lakes that formed some 10,000 years ago during the last Ice Age. Another Ice Age feature preserved here is underneath the strip of woodland to the North of the Mere. This is an esker – a ridge of sands and gravels deposited by a meltwater river that ran underneath the ice sheet……….

The Mere and its supporting reedbeds support a heronry and important populations of wintering wildfowl”.

So no mere Mere then and hence the tile of this report.

This was another daring foray into foreign lands – this time not darkest Wales but the ever sunny (allegedly) Staffordshire although when we arrived it was all a bit Graham (a weather condition first described by a famous meteorologist called Urkey). The trip was made all the more daunting by the absence of our fearless leader.

Umpteen (minus one) JoW ologists slowly gathered in the car park and proceeded to unpack the boot of their cars. Some, famously, taking much longer than others which was just as well as one member of JoW turned up late, perhaps forgetting the difference in the time zones. No names no pack drill as the saying goes or, more probably, went but one word will suffice – molluscs ! At least we now numbered umpteen.

The time-honoured ritual of surveying the car park before entering the site was then practiced

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

but, eventually, we passed through the gates into the actual site.

Imagine my surprise when, instead of immediately encountering the legendary Staffordshire Hoard (Stoke City supporters ?)  I had anticipated, I practically bumped into my next-door neighbour, a keen birdwatcher, who was leaving the site having spent a few chilly early morning hours apparently not watching any interesting birds. His surprise was, I think, greater than mine as he was faced with the full umpteen bearing all sorts of unlikely looking collecting equipment. His companion appeared completely bemused.

The JoW group then ungrouped with the speed of a group of things which ungroups rapidly and proceeded to sweep, beat, vacuum and grub about and soon found items of interest (well to us at least).

14-spot ladybird, Propylea quatuordecimpunctata

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A planthopper, Cicadella viridis

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Dock bug, Coreus marginatus

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Acorn weevil, Curculio glandium

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Four spot orb weaver, Araneus quadratus

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A money spider, Microlinyphia pusilla

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Smaller groups coagulated at intervals to swap specimens or photos of specimens or identifications of specimens submitted to a rather splendid smartphone app called Obsidentify which is startlingly accurate most of the time but bizarrely inaccurate on occasions. To our surprise, three things which we firmly believed to be a weevil, a beetle and a caterpillar all turned out to be Asian hornets. (Photos not included to protect the guilty).

We slowly moved further into the site sampling different habitats

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

and continuing to find interesting species.

Green shieldbug, Palomena prasina

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Hairy shieldbug, Dolycoris baccarum

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Oak bush cricket, Meconema thalassinum

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Meadow grasshopper, Pseudochorthippus parallelus

Photograph: David Williams

A mirid bug, Mecomma ambulans

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A darkling beetle, Nalassus laevioctostriatus

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A nursery wed spider with her nursery web, Pisaura mirabilis

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Our botanist/birdist/general all-round knowledgist managed to get as far as the bird hide and enquired of a distant group (a vesta?) of swans whether they had seen my next-door neighbour earlier but they remained mute !

More creatures were retrieved and subjected to various indignities to reveal their identities.

A cereal leaf beetle, Oulema duftschmidi/melanopus

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A soldier fly, Four-barred major, Oxycera rara

Photograph: David Williams

A weevil, Rhinoncus perpendicularis

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

And, finally, after a number of people (remember zero is a number although the Romans never knew) have clamoured for its return, the Weevil of the Week is back !!

Neocoenorrhinus germanicus

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Eventually the group ran out of steam if not battery power and, after one last vac, returned to the cars and journeyed home where the work, for some, begins as many specimens need to be examined under a microscope to identify the species.

One such specimen, of a fairy fly; which is actually a tiny wasp is shown below. It is 0.7mm and, as yet, unidentified.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Since Nigel sent me his report I have received more photographs from the day.

Starting with what would have been a county first for Shropshire had we not been in Staffordshire. However, we think it may be a first for that county too. 

A wasp with boxing gloves for front claws, Lestiphorus bicinctus. (Not one of my favourite animals as it preys on planthoppers! Thankfully, from my point of view, it is quite scarce.)

Photograph: Clare Boyes

Roesel’s Bush-cricket

Photograph: David Williams

Nymph of a Tortoise Shieldbug

Photograph: David Williams

Long-winged Conehead

Photograph: David Williams

Short-winged Conehead

Photograph: David Williams

Adonis’ Ladybird

Photograph: David Williams

Common Earwig and Forest Bug

Photograph: David Williams

Parent Bugs

Photograph: David Williams

Larva of a carrion beetle

Photograph: David Williams

Slender Groundhopper

Photograph: David Williams

My thanks to Natural England for permitting us to do what we enjoy doing, to Nigel for providing the report in my absence and to the photographers for their excellent images.

 

Wonderful Wood Whites

Wednesday 16th July 2025, Walcot Wood 

A bit of research on that font of all knowledge, the internet, reveals that Walcot Wood is a tiny remnant of woodland from a vast Elizabethan (I) estate. Although it is small it contains a good number of veteran oaks, i.e. trees that are in their final stage of life which may last 300 years or more.

The wood is situated close to Bury Ditches and it is at this site’s car park that we met. From there it is a half mile or so walk to the edge of the wood. This is mainly downhill from the car park passing Stanley Cottage on the way.

Of course, a long walk to the site carries great risk as people get distracted by any attractive looking habitat noticed along the way.

On this occasion the attrition rate was high.

I tried to set the example and made straight for the site!! 

But by the time I got there I was accompanied by less than half the number we started out with.

A few soon followed but two were not seen again until nearly lunchtime! But, to be fair, they had been on site, out of sight, for some of that time. Time enough for one of them to find a species of fly new to the county, Argyra auricollis. And the other to find a Wood White butterfly.

Finding a Wood White was a surprise. None of us knew that it was to be found in this wood. (Later checking of the records revealed that it had been seen twice before in 2007 and 2011.) However, it should not have been too much of a surprise as Wood whitea arte found at Bury Ditches.

Once we were on site the vast majority of us explored the vegetation that bordered the track that ran through the first half of the wood.

This rose gently to a meeting of several tracks which provided a convenient gathering point.

And spot for lunch.

We then progressed sightly right, downhill, to a path that forked to the left which passed through the trees at the bottom of a slope where most of the veteran trees were situated.

When the inevitable end of the day arrived, we returned by the same path that we had come.

But, as it was mostly downhill on the outward journey, it was UPHILL on the way back.

OK, so far, lots of words and not many pictures. Let’s correct that now with photographs of some of the many species we found on this site.

A Painted Lady.

Photograph: John Martin

Chicken-in-the-woods fungus.

Photograph: Nigel Jones

A beetle, Cartodere nodifer.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A stiltbug, Metatropis rufescens, which is normally found on Enchanter’s Nightshade.

Photograph: David Williams

Watch where you walk! You would not want to put your foot here. An entrance to a nest of the Common Wasp, Vespula vulgaris.

Photograph: Nigel Jones

A weevil. Orbitis cyanea.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A 22-spot ladybird.

Photograph: David Williams

A harvestman, Homalenotus quadridentatus.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A picture wing fly associated with Burdock plants, Terellia tussilaginis.

Photograph: Nigel Jones

Photograph: Nigel Jones

A lacebug, Dictyonota strichnocera.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A fly, Rhamphomyia flava.

Photograph: Nigel Jones

A mirid bug, Orthonotus rufifrons.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A nymph of a Common Groundhopper.

Photograph: David Williams

A moth, Dingy footman.

Photograph: John Martin

A Meadow Grasshopper.

Photograph: David Williams

A Ringlet.

Photograph: David Williams

Another moth, this time a Shaded Broad-bar.

Photograph: David Williams

And for some light relief from all these invertebrates, a plant, Burnet Saxifrage.

Photograph: John Martin

As we progressed further into the woodland (and away from our cars) we found more and more Wood Whites. In all we found about a dozen during the afternoon.

This provided plenty of photographic opportunities. Here are a few.

It’s no good trying to hide…we can see you!

Photograph: John Martin

A male feeding.

Photograph: David Williams

A female Wood White in flight.

Photograph: David Williams

Photograph: David Williams

A female Wood White ovipositing on a leaf of a Bird’s-foot Trefoil.

Photograph: David Williams

And finally, a Wood White egg.

Photograph: David Williams

My thanks to Natural England for granting us permission to enjoy ourselves and my gratitude to the photographers for providing their excellent images for this report.