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.