Natural graffiti

Wednesday 12th February 2025, Nils Quarry

Snow Flea update – none were found.

On this occasion we visited Nils Quarry in Pontesbury.

The site has had a chequered history. Its first use was as a quarry for quartzite. When the quarry was exhausted it was used for landfill. Now the landfill has been capped and nature allowed to take over.

Much of the site is woodland, and many of the quarries are only accessible by hacking your way through thick vegetation, their quarry faces peering through the tress mockingly saying “You can’t get to me!”.

The main quarry floor and, presumably, the capped surface of the landfill is now grassland.

As you can see from the photograph the grassland has been cut and, apart from a few tufts of grass and other vegetation, was very short, providing very little shelter for any creatures that wished to overwinter in that habitat.

Whilst most of the group headed off to the grassland to see what they could find in that area and its surrounding vegetation a couple of us headed into the woodland to look for Polytichum moss.

And we found some, a whole bankside’s worth.

This was scoured for some time but very little was found in residence, certainly no Snow fleas.

Having given up on the moss, attention was switched to some bramble nearby which was more fruitful, delivering us this Dotted border moth.

This is a male.

How do we know?

Easy…

It has fully developed wings.

The females of this species are flightless, although they do have substantial wing stubs.

Returning to the grassland and rejoining the others we caught up on what they had found in our absence. 

A pair of ladybirds, Rhyzobius litura (on the left of the following photograph) and 16-spot (on the right).

Photograph: David Williams

A pair of Scarlet tiger moth larvae.

Photograph: David Williams

A gall on ground-ivy known as the Lighthouse gall, caused by the larva of the fly Rondaniola bursaria.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A ground beetle, Bembidion aeneum.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

And a tiny wasp that has defied identification to date.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Now that we had returned would they find anything else.

The answer, of course, was “Yes”.

Another tiny ladybird, Nephus redtenbacheri. In the following photograph it is placed next to a 16-spot ladybird to give you an idea of its size.

Photograph: David Williams

At the end of the grassland furthest from the entrance was a picnic table. 

And we drifted towards it, spotting a 7-spot ladybird on the way.

Photograph: David Williams

The picnic table was a suitable spot for lunch, but we first checked out the nearby pool. Newts were spotted as they broke the surface of the water to take in air. They evaded our photographers’ efforts to capture this.

But here is the pool.

Lunch was declared and everyone magically appeared from wherever their wanderings had taken them.

We have no gong or whistle, but it happens every trip.

we then had the "lunchtime vac.", giving everyone a chance to huddle up and share some mutual warmth.

Photograph: Liz Roberts

Wandering back from an exploration of the woodland one of the group came across a couple of fungi.

The first was Candle-snuff fungus.

Photograph: Liz Roberts

And the second was a Scarlet elf cup.

Photograph: Liz Roberts

Unfortunately, there are two very similar fungi which look like this and cannot be separated to species without examining microscopically the spore it produces. This is not something that we undertook.

After lunch we wandered beyond the grassland into the woodland.

The path was very wet, muddy and difficult to walk on, but we persisted, pausing frequently to check out the vegetation bordering the path, finding a couple of beetles.

A hister beetle, Onthophilus striatus.

Photograph: David Williams

And a staphylinid beetle, Metapsia clypeata.

Photograph: David Williams

The day then rather fizzled out. Very little more was found, and we returned by various routes to the grassland and the picnic table.

The table was inspected closely to check for lichens.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Then after “One Final Vac” we headed home.

On the way out of the site we spotted a bench that had been made from a tree trunk and noticed it was decorated with natural graffiti, generated by the larvae of the Ash bark beetle.

Photograph: Nigel Jones

My thanks to Shropshire County Council for granting us permission to do what we enjoy doing and the photographers for their excellent images and allowing me to use them in this report.

Five Needles

Wednesday 5th February 2025 Shawbury Heath

Snow Flea update – none were found.

Crossbill update – I have now received a couple of photographs of Crossbills seen at Black Hill.

Photograph: John Martin

Photograph: John Martin

This outing was to the Forestry England plantation at Shawbury Heath. 

(Fortunately I noticed that the spell checker had changed Shawbury Heath to "Strawberry Heath".)

We were greeted at the site entrance by sunshine. But it did not last, gradually clouding over during the day. However, it did not rain.

Entering the site we soon came to a small patch of grassland which was suction sampled. The result of this activity was lots springtails and flies but very little else.

We moved on.

The entrance track was bordered by rather thick bramble which prevented access to the woodland on either side for much of its length.

The track ends at a T-junction with another path. The area here was much more open and the woodland was accessible. We took advantage and spent a good deal of time here.

There was plenty of Polytrichum moss, but our efforts to find Snow fleas were in vain, yet again.

There were two ways to go from this point.

To the left or to the right.

We went right, passing along between the trees. Again there was quite a bit of Polytrichum, but our searches were unsuccessful.

Passing a wide ditch that crossed the stream we paused for lunch and a good chat about this and that; some of it wildlife based, some of it not.

After lunch we ambled further along the path.

But…

The path changed from firm underfoot to very boggy and difficult to negotiate. 

Having negotiated a few yards of this we resigned ourselves to turning back.

Then…

A chance exploration of the area to our left led to an area that had been clear-felled and had now developed into a pleasant area of wet heathland.

We explored further.

In amongst the heather, ephemeral and permanent pools, and young conifers that had regenerated we found a few small trees of an unusual pine.

Photograph: John Martin

This is Pinus strobus, known as Weymouth pine. It is unusual in that it is a “Five needled” pine. That is 5 needles are clustered together within a sheath.

 

This feature gives the tree a softer look than other pines

Photograph: John Martin

As we went deeper into this area uncertainties about getting out the other side loomed large. 

We chickened out and retraced our steps and went home.

Ah, but we have not seen any photo of any furry, cuddly animals.

Well, there aren’t any!

However here are some of the far more delightful invertebrates that we saw during the day.

Starting with some ladybirds and other beetles.

7-spot ladybird.

Photograph: David Williams

Cream-spot ladybird.

Photograph: David Williams

A collection of Pine ladybirds.

Photograph: David Williams

A  ground beetle, not yet identified to species but probably a Bembidion species.

Photograph: John Martin

A weevil, Protapion assimile.

Photograph: David Williams

A staphylinid beetle, Tychus niger.

Photograph: David Williams

Another ground beetle, tentatively identified as Pterostichus madidus.

Photograph: John Martin

And a third ground beetle, probably an Amara species.

Photograph: John Martin

And now a couple of springtails.

Dicyrtomina ornata.

Photograph: David Williams

And Dicyrtomina saundersi.

Photograph: David Williams

Unfortunately the third springtail which was lunch for the pseudoscorpion remains unidentified. The pseudoscorpion is Neobisium carcinoides.

Photograph: David Williams

A bug, a Parent bug.

Photograph: David Williams

And a hibernating wasp, Vespula vulgaris.

Photograph: David Williams

Finally, one of the group took home some moss and sorted through it hoping to find an elusive Snow flea.

He didn’t.

But he did find  quite an assemblage of tine creatures, mostly in the 1-2mm size range. Here are some of the photographs he took. None have been identified as yet.

The assemblage.

Photograph: Nigel Jones

To give you an idea of their size, here are a couple of the creature against a 1mm scale.

Photograph: Nigel Jpones

This is a Chalcid wasp.

Photograph: Nigel Jones

And finally, what we call a “Popeye” mite due its bulging front legs.

Photograph: Nigel Jones

My thanks to Forestry England for granting us permission to do what we enjoy doing and the photographers for their excellent images and allowing me to use them in this report.

Phenomenonmenom

Wednesday 29th January 2025Black Hill

Snow Flea update – none were found.

After the strenuous effort required for our visit to Brook Vessons last week we were hoping for an easier day at the Forestry England plantation at Black Hill, just south of Clun.

The hardest and most anxious part of the day was getting there.

The road from Clun is relentlessly uphill and barely wider than a car. In places it was like diving up a river as water streamed down the road and in other places the existence of a tarmac surface was questionable. Fortunately, we did not meet anyone coming the other way and made it safely to the car park.

When everyone had arrived we set off and managed to get about 20 yards onto the site before we did our first extensive exploration of the vegetation. This was not going to be another Brook Vessons-like day!

Looking back we had an excellent view over the cars of the rolling hills marching off to the west.

Moving on we continued up the gentle slope to a division in the path.

Decision time.

Left or Right?

To the left the path continued to rise and was in full sun.

To the right the path curved from the sun into shade.

We went left.

Reaching the top of the short rise the path turned right then plunged into shadow.

We halted and explored this area.

Here we had a bit more success than our initial investigations close to the entrance.

A ground beetle Paradromius linearis.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A staphylinid beetle which was identified as Olophrum piceum.

Photograph: David Williams

Larvae of  Ringlet butterflies.

Photograph: David Williams

A Common shiny woodlouse.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Another ground beetle, Loricerus pilicornis, with long hairs on its antennae.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Remarkably lunchtime was approaching fast. 

Another decision.

Have lunch where we were or move on?

This decision was aided by the cool penetrating breeze that had sprung up.

We moved.

But which way?

Continuing on the path would just lead us into the shade.

We returned to the earlier junction, which was in the sun and more sheltered from the breeze.

Over lunch we noticed a strange phenomenom.

Unfortunately, whenever I tried to say “phenomenon” it came out as “phenomenonmenom”. This was quickly adopted up by the others to describe what we were seeing.

Here is the phenomenonmenom.

Photograph: David Williams

This is a solar halo. It arises when the sun is shining through a thin layer of high cloud. Apparently, they are not very rare, so it is surprising we had not noticed one before.

Lunch over we spent a little time checking the vegetation close to where we were. We found a pseudoscorpion that is not one we normally find, but it is, probably, the second most common one that we do find, Chthonius ischnoceles.

Photograph: David Williams

We also found the spider, Walckenaeria acuminata, known to us as “Mr Periscopehead” as, bizarrely, its eyes are on a long stalk above its head.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Taking the path we did not take earlier we came to a small clearing at the side of track.

We had been hearing Crossbills all day. Disappointingly we did not spot them very often, and it was usually in flight as they flitted between the top branches of the conifers. For some reasons a few decided to pause and pose in a couple of trees close to where we were. Here is my attempt to photograph one.

The clearing had several bushes of broom and some gorse, and this latter plant yielded a Sloe bug (or Hairy shieldbug, if you prefer).

Photograph: David Williams

The urge to move on came over us once again. We continued along the track to an area of heather and moss and lichen covered tree stumps.

Using the suction samplers in this vegetation resulted in us finding:

An Angle shades moth larva;

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

And a bristletail.

Photograph: David Williams

It was time to think about turning round and heading back to the cars, but looking ahead we could see that the path opened out and was bathed in the mid-afternoon sunshine.

Should we carry on?

We did … and marched to this area (away from the cars) where we set up our final camp of the day.

Checking a tree in this area we found the harvestman, Megabunus diadematus.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Venturing into the clearing, created by a clear-fell of the conifers, not yet dominated by the newly planted trees, required armoured trousers as there were areas dominated by dwarf sized gorse bushes. 

Dwarf sized they may have been, but they had full size spines.

Having braved the gorse, or found a way around it, we came to an area where the ground was covered in heather and grass tussocks.

In between these there was the occasional small patch of Stag’s-horn clubmoss.

Photograph: David Williams

As the sun was getting low in the sky and the temperature was dropping we called it a day and made our way back to the cars.

We did meet another car on the way back but, fortunately, it was after we had cleared the narrow road and were arriving in Clun.

My thanks to the Forestry England for granting us permission to do what we enjoy doing and the photographers for their excellent images and allowing me to use them in this report.