Happy Valley

Wednesday 22nd July 2026, Mowley Valley, North Herefordshire

 At the risk of repeating myself, this was another hot, dry, sunny day. By now, as I hardly need to say, much of the scenery had taken on a distinctly straw-coloured look (and not just because a lot of it was, in fact, straw):

This was an ‘away day’ over the border into Herefordshire, to a large, curving, flat-bottomed valley of the River Arrow, with flood meadows and steep, wooded sides. This extensive site is an active rewilding project and promises much of interest.
Emerging from our vehicles after a longish journey which was further complicated by an unwelcome road closure, it was immediately apparent from the noise that the grassland was full of grasshoppers and crickets. Specifically Roesel’s Bush-crickets (everywhere but nearly impossible to see) and Meadow Grasshoppers. Almost the first insect seen was this particular Meadow Grasshopper.

This species is usually flightless and short winged, especially in the female. But the above female is a macropter – a fully winged, flying form which tends to be produced at high population densities and in prolonged warm weather. This is what a female Meadow Grasshopper usually looks like (like all grasshoppers, colours are very variable):

The first area of exploration for most of the group was an uncut meadow which has had a number of scrapes created at its far end (relative to our entry point). This whole area floods in winter, the scrapes then retaining water for much of the year. We worked our way towards them, around and across the field, wading through enormous numbers of grasshoppers. One particularly eye-catching find en route was this teneral Dock Bug in fetching shades of pink.

photo: John Lyden

In due course the scrapes were reached. A few of us had made a reconnaissance trip here in March, when they were all marvellously full of toadspawn. They looked rather different now, but most were still holding at least some water and revealed themselves to be a bit of a dragonfly-fest. This produced much long-lens-type camera action, with the following results. I hope you like pictures of Odonata…
Emperor Dragonfly

photo: John Martin

Southern Hawker

Black-tailed Skimmer (an accommodating species which perches a lot!)

photo: John Lyden

Common Darter

photo: John Martin

Ruddy Darter

photo: John Lyden

And some damselflies, starting with what I believe is a new one for the site – Emerald Damselfly

photo: John Martin

Common Blue Damselfly

photo: John Lyden

And finally, Blue-tailed Damselfly

All of the above are males. Females tend to keep away from waterbodies until they are ready to mate, to avoid constant harassment from the males.
Odonates didn’t have the airspace all to themselves. Several fledgling Swallows were making low passes over the water, grazing the surface.

The edges of the scrapes also produced interest, including many Slender Groundhoppers

Plus several flies, including the spotty-eyed Hoverfly Eristalinus sepulchralis

photo: John Martin

And a Muscid fly of the genus Lispe.

photo: John Martin

Time to move on, into the valley proper. Here, the meadows had been mown, but pleasingly wide margins left for the wildlife.

photo: John Lyden

Before long we had become rather strung out through this extensive valley, so much so that I lost sight of anyone ahead of, or behind me. Abandoning hope of finding anyone in the near future, I chanced upon a bench, very handily placed in the shade, and broke into my sandwich box. In due course, munching and contemplating the view, I became aware of a small brown bird doing the ‘flycatcher thing’, from a tree on the opposite side of the meadow, at the edge of the woodland. Perched on a high branch, it periodically darted out, caught something then circled back again to its starting point. I aimed my inadequately sized zoom lens at it and captured a distant image, just about good enough to confirm it as a Spotted Flycatcher, with a photo-bombing Treecreeper close by for good measure.

 We made our way through the valley in several discrete groups, making any sort of continuous narrative of what happened next impossible. My personal mission for the day was to map all the Orthoptera into the several OS grid squares that we crossed. A couple more grasshoppers did appear (Field and Common Green) plus Oak Bush-cricket and Long-winged Conehead. Meanwhile, others were indulging their own specialisms. Here are just a few images of the many finds that were made. A micro moth, Agriphila tristella

photo: John Lyden

The hoverfly Eristalis nemorum (awarded the disappointingly dull name of Stripe-faced Drone Fly in the new and usually rather florid naming system). Males of this species hover in a characteristic and hopeful way over females (and sometimes any vaguely similar-looking insect), rather like this…

photo: John Martin

A Common Blue butterfly

photo: John Lyden

The day was not without botanical interest, though sadly I am unable to report much of it. But here is Jim, entranced by a fine display of hybrid mint. Well, who wouldn’t be?

photo: John Martin

Combining botany with mycology, this is Pear Rust, Gymnosporangium sabinae.

photo: John Lyden

The day drew on, got hotter, we reached the end (or nearly the end) of the valley and began to flag, conscious that we now had to walk all the way back again. The disparate groups miraculously coalesced and about-turned. Some time on the return journey was spent at a damper area which produced much to keep us occupied, and not only because it was in the shade, though that helped.
 

And finally… more Clouded Yellows. There were several sightings across the day of perhaps multiple individuals. One dallied long enough to have its image captured as proof.

photo: John Martin

A highly enjoyable day at an exceptional site. Many thanks to our hosts for allowing us to indulge ourselves.
 
  
 
Photographs © the author except as noted.