Wednesday 1st October 2025, Old River Bed
This visit was to the Old River Bed in Shrewsbury.
Since our last visit to this site Beavers have been introduced to assist in the upkeep of the site. Would we see one?
Our first task was to get into the enclosure which is now surrounded by a high beaver-proof fence.
Fortunately, we did not need to scale the fence as a person from Shrewsbury Council met us at the entrance to unlock the gate. (And make sure we knew how to lock it when we left!)
Now in, we looked out onto the land in front of us.
The area by the gate was relatively firm underfoot and not too wet.
The area beyond here was uneven and covered in tall vegetation. In addition the tall vegetation hid areas of surface water so we had to be careful where we trod.
Wellington boots were definitely the order of the day.
We decided that the entrance was probably the best place to set up camp and, in complete contrast to the amount of walking about we did on our last outing, at Broncroft Lodge Farm, it remained our base throughout our stay.
One of the first areas explored was a patch of reedmace where the small bug Chilacis typhae was found wandering about on one of the plants.
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| Photograph: David Williams |
People wandered off in ones and twos to explore the fen in pursuit of their own particular interests and this provided paths through the vegetation that others could follow.
On one of these excursions, we noted Meadowsweet leaves covered in galls.
These are caused by the larvae of the gall midge Dasineura ulmaria.
And a pair of Spiked Shieldbugs, Picromerus bidens, busy ensuring a further generation.
Despite the wet condition we continued to use our suction samplers. They proved invaluable at getting to the base of the vegetation to allow us to see what had taken up residence in that habitat. Nets were not much use as they only skimmed the top surface and soon became waterlogged. Beating the vegetation was also used extensively.
Finds included this weevil, Datonychus melanostictus.
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| Photograph: David Williams |
Another Spiked Shieldbug.
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| Photograph: David Williams |
A bat detector was used to listen for the calls of Ortoptera, and then locate any singing insect. This produced a sighting of a Long-winged conehead, Conocephalus fuscus.
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| Photograph: David Williams |
Following the inside of the fence, as it goes along the end of the site tracking the Ellesmere road, it eventually comes to a stream that runs down the site. The view from the footbridge that crosses it was not dissimilar from that at the entrance.
After last week’s glut of 16-spot ladybirds, here is a reminder…
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| Photograph: David Williams |
Tapping an oak to dislodge invertebrates lurking on the branches and leaves resulted in an avalanche of acorns…
BUT no invertebrates!
Then we saw a B…
So the answer to the title question is YES, we found a B…
Only this was not a Beaver, but a Bank Vole, Myodes glareolus.
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| Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett |
A bit of a let down if you were expecting something bigger, but great to see.
A late visitor was a Frosted Orange moth, Gortyna flavago, which took up my residence in my tray. It was potted to ensure it stayed long enough to be photographed.
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| Photograph: David Williams |
It was now nearing the end of the day and as we gathered at “base camp” before leaving, a hoverfly, Helophilus pendulus, joined us.
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| Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett |
Gathering up our equipment and bags we left the site.
And made sure we secured the gate.
I leave you with a photograph of “The harvestman, the ant and the boy”.
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| Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett |
(The boy is a wingless parasitic wasp, Callitula pyrrhogaster, which has become one of our favourite insects to find. Hardly a trip goes by without us finding one. However, now is not the time to explain how it got our nickname of “the boy”)
My thanks to Shrewsbury Council for granting us access to the site and giving us permission to do what we enjoy doing, My gratitude to the photographers for their excellent images.
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