Rain, rain, go away … It did!

Wednesday 6th April 2022, Llanymynech Heritage Centre

The “summer” season programme of the Joy of Wildlife group got off to a rather soggy start as heavy rain greeted us when we arrived at the site. 

Despite the cascade of water from above we set off in hope of better things to come.

However, it did not feel that way as we wandered through the site.

Fortunately we came across the Hoffmann Kiln, one of the site’s historic buildings. Most importantly, at that moment, the structure had a roof! So, we all took advantage of this shelter to stop getting even wetter.

Inside then kiln it was perfectly dry!

The occasional foray was made into the wild wetness to see if there were any creatures, apart from us, to be eccentric enough to be out and about.

We did not find many!

The rain eased …

Then stopped …

The clouds slowly parted ...

The sun put in an appearance …

And we emerged.

The Hoffmann Kiln is continuous burning ring kiln. Information about it is summarised on the following information board.

Clicking on the image should open it in a separate window enabling the text to be read.

A second board provides more information about the working conditions, which were far from ideal.

And the roof?

It was part of the original construction to keep the quicklime dry.

The chimney is at the far end of the kiln and makes it presence felt throughout the site.

Although the industrial buildings form a major focus for the site, there are also extensive meadows, woodland, the Montgomery Canal and The Canal and River Trust visitor centre.

Grateful for the shelter and interest the kiln had provided, we moved into one of the meadows.

Given the time of year we did not expect much of obvious floral interest but there were a few cowslips in evidence.

Whilst others busied themselves in the meadows I wandered into the woods and came across large patches of primroses;

And wood anemone.

The rest of the group had been busy during my brief wander:

A staphylinid beetle, Stenus bimaculatus;

Photograph: David Williams

A springtail stalking beetle, Notiophilus rufipes;

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A ground beetle, Oxypselaphus obscurus;

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

And a cowslip/primrose hybrid.

We were by a bench and it was just the right time of day so we had lunch.

In the afternoon we continued looking at the meadows and the rougher vegetation that surrounded each one.

Staphylinid beetles were plentiful. Here are a couple more that have been identified:

Tachyporus obtusus;

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

And Paederus riparius.

Photograph: David Williams

Gravity drew us to the lower meadow. This grassland bordered the Montgomery Canal and its lowly position made it much wetter. The meadow had a small pool.

The water in the pool was pretty clear and we could see several newts swimming about.

Seeing the newts in the water was easy but being able to photograph them, as they swam below the surface of the water, was far more difficult! However with a dedicated effort the following photographs of a couple of species were obtained. These show the difference between the hind feet of breeding male smooth and palmate newts:

Smooth newt;

Photograph: David Williams

Palmate newt.

Photograph: David Williams

In the denser border vegetation of the meadow a bee-fly, Bombylius major, was taking a brief pause from its normal frenetic (to human observers) behaviour.

Looking up from the bee-fly one was immediately reminded of the sites industrial past.

Nearby, a 10-spot ladybird was dislodged, photographed, then returned to its abode.

Photograph: David Williams

A search of the longer grass and other vegetation close to the pool yielded another ladybird, Coccidula rufa.

Photograph: David Williams

We left the meadow at the end furthest from the cars and walked back to the starting point along the canal towpath, pausing for one last look at the dominating chimney.

And finally the Wednesday Weevil of the Week, which was found in the vegetation bordering the canal, Notaris scirpi.

Photograph: Emm Cane-Honeysett

My thanks to Shropshire County Council and the Canal and River Trust for permission to visit the site and to the photographers who have provided their images.

Other news

From a holidaymaker in Crete I have been sent the following photographs:

A pair of groundbugs, Spilostethus pandurus.

Photograph: John Lyden

These have been found occasionally in Britain but the records are attributed to natural immigrants and accidental introductions.

And a weevil, that had it not been found on a different day would be a rival to the Wednesday Weevil of the Week, Lixus pulverulentus.

Photograph: John Lyden

Rain, Rain Go Away!

Many, many years ago when I was young I remember reading a cartoon strip where one of the characters always had a black rain cloud over his head even when all the other characters were in the sun. Unfortunately I am now old enough to have forgotten the character's name. However, I feel like that character after the last couple of weeks when, although the weather has not been at its best, it has been particularly wet on Joy of Wildlife Days. See last week's blog "How many entomologists can you fit under a Horse chestnut tree?" and read on ....

Rhos Fiddle - Wednesday 22nd June

Nine of us made the lengthy trip to the Shropshire Wildlife Reserve at Rhos Fiddle in the south west corner of the county. The skies were leaden but it was dry.

I have visited this site a couple of times before but never managed to get more than 50 yards or so from the entrance due to time constraints, so today was the day to explore the whole site!

After a cursory look around the area where the cars were parked we entered the site. Within 10 minutes there was a flurry of rain that sent some of us scurrying back to the cars to don the waterproofs we had foolishly left behind.

Of course when we returned to the site the others were either dots on the landscape or had disappeared over the horizon.




We swept and beat and vacuumed and managed a small but diverse group of finds. The highland cattle which graze the site along with some sheep kept a respectful distance.



We ascended the first rise to be faced with a second. Having scaled the second rise the site opened out in front of us, and to one side, and the other. It is a much larger site than I expected.

Our next target was a clump of gorse that I mistakenly thought was the site of the Rhos Fiddle Pools. I felt that was a good place to base ourselves for our explorations.

It was not the site of the pools instead it appeared to be where the local sheep went to die as we found several sheep carcasses in the area. 



One of the group who is never one to miss an opportunity to find some interesting flies inspected one of them and "liberated" a sexton beetle, Nicrophorus humator.



As this spot was dry underfoot whereas most of the rest of the site was very wet what better place for lunch?

Lunch was more of less complete when we had another flurry of rain which gave the opportunity for a couple of the group to demonstrate another essential piece of entomological equipment - the umbrella.



Others ignored the rain and went in search of more specimens



We found a Hieroglyphic ladybird, a heathland specialist.




Time to move on, but where? We decided to try to get to the far side. "It's not bad underfoot" was a comment I heard from someone. 



Well it was not too bad ... if you were wearing wellingtons but those in walking boots found the water deeper than their boots, so we abandoned this quest and returned to the outcrop of gorse ... and the sheep.

When we had all gathered we were shown a rarity that had been found whilst some of us were floundering in the boggy conditions. A hoverfly. (Do not be fooled by the sun in the photograph - this was not taken on site.)


This was identified as Microdon myrmicae. This is a very localised species found on wet heaths and poor wet grasslands. Its larvae inhabit ant nests where they may feed on the ant eggs and larvae.

I looked behind me the hills in the distance were no longer visible as a veil of rain was fast approaching. We retreated back to the cars. Unfortunately we were not quick enough and the rain won the race and we got soaked.

As compensation we stopped in Clun on the way back for tea and cake. 

The sun came out, it was a glorious late afternoon!!!

My thanks to Nigel Jones for letting me use his photograph of M. mymicae.


Dothill LNR - Friday 24th June

I am far more attentive of the weather forecast than I used to be. This day was "fine until lunchtime then rain in the afternoon". So, with luck we would get three or four hours on site.

Four of us met in pleasant weather for our third expedition to Dothill.

We made our way to the meadow by Tee Lake which had developed very nicely since our last visit and provided a lovely floral display with plenty of orchid spikes punctuating the collection. You had to be careful where you put your feet. But at least it was the right reason.



There was plenty of to look at and identify including this Forest bug nymph.



As good as this area was Dothill is a very large site so it was necessary to move on. We marched to the next area but decided to make use of the nearby bench as a spot for lunch.

This was the same bench where on our first visit we had had "bad" experiences due to the local dogs, but on this occasion only three dogs passed and they were well behaved, as were their guardians.

Whilst lunching we noted a series of small holes in the dry bare ground in front of the seat. (Sorry no photographs.) There were a number of small bees/wasps exploring them. Sometimes they just "looked", sometimes they investigated more closely, sometimes they went in to come out again fairly quickly. When we looked more closely some of the holes had faces peering out. We suspected that these were bee/wasp nests and the bees/wasps flying around may have been trying to parasitise the nest. We may, of course, have been completely wrong. However it provided the lunchtime entertainment. Thank you.

The second area we looked at is a large expanse of rank grassland with some wet patches. You had to be equally careful where to put your feet here, but for the wrong reason. Again the area was rich in insect life. 

By now the sun had disappeared and the rain clouds were gathering so we decided to call it a day before it started raining.

Unfortunately we did not get our timing right and again we got soaked. 

The Joys of Wildlife!

Rain, rain, go away - Keith Fowler

It is nearly two months since I last wrote about out Wednesday jaunts to try and find Shieldbugs and other invertebrates of interest. I apologise for this but I have been just a little bit busy. Fortunately a day off and a wet day have allowed me to catch up with my identifications and spend some time writing this.

I am sure you will be relieved to know that none of us seem to have suffered any long term ill-effects from the numerous mosquito bites suffered for the cause on our previous outing to the Hem.

Abbey Wood 26th June

Abbey Wood is near Lilleshall in the neighbourhood of, not surprisingly, Lilleshall Abbey; it also borders the National Sports Centre. I was chatting to an attendee at an Hemipterists’ Day and it somehow emerged that he was part owner of this wood. He agreed to try to arrange access for us to visit, which he duly did.

The first challenge was access. There is very limited parking space at the entrance to the wood. We met in Lilleshall village, transferred to a couple of cars then made our way to the wood. The first part of the journey was along a tarmacked lane but this soon petered out into a rough track. Unfortunately one of the cars became the victim of a large stone.

Having arrived we inspected the damage, kitted ourselves out for the day and tackled the next challenge – getting into the wood. In our way was a locked five-bar gate. We overcame this barrier rather well and no injuries were sustained. Hold on a minute ... one of the party has decided to return to the cars ... on his return ... oh no! he has fallen victim to the gate.

The search started well with a long-horn beetle (Stenocorus meridianus), Red-headed and Black-headed cardinal beetles in the first 20 minutes. The path was clothed in orchids. By the time lunch was taken we had found a shieldbug (hooray!), three long-horn beetles, several micro-moths and craneflies and many other insects.

After lunch we ventured further into the woods. This took us through a rather bleak section of conifer plantation before it returned to a more open broadleaved section. Unfortunately the ground flora had taken advantage of the more open aspect and chest-head high nettles forced us to retreat. On our return through the conifers we chanced upon a Red-necked footman which caused our moth experts some consternation before it adopted the classic footman pose.

At the end of the day we scaled the gate with ease and returned home very carefully.


Shawbury Heath 3rd July

We sneaked our way into the Invertebrate Challenge Bee Group’s trip. As it turned out, apart from all parking in the same place, we split up and went our separate ways only meeting once, appropriately, halfway around. For the first part of the day we were in the illustrious company of the County micro-moth recorder who decided to join us for the morning. I have never seen our group find so many micro-moths.

Shawbury Heath is a plantation with a few wide rides and a couple of large areas that have been harvested and are turning to birch scrub. It was in one of these areas that we found the star of the day, possibly the year, a Blue shieldbug nymph.



















On our return we chanced across several long-horn beetles feeding on Hogweed and we were treated to a demonstration of the latest piece of essential equipment – the Sprung Tea Egg. Not just any Sprung Tea Egg but an outsize one from Dunbar. Clearly they like very strong tea in Dunbar. As the picture shows – it works.













To cap the day we met a member of the bee group who pointed out Woundwort and Parent shieldbugs to us.

Little Wenlock 10th July
It was hot. That is my abiding memory of the day. Unrelenting heat. It was even too hot for the invertebrates to come out and play. So hot that it drove us from the field and into the pub.

We followed the route of the “Benches Walk” (see http://www.littlewenlock.org/j_benchwalks/benchmap.html) from the Village Hall down to Swan Farm Pool then returned to the village via Buildwas Lane.

Most of the walk is, unfortunately, fenced in so there was very little opportunity to look for invertebrates other than along the path and lane edges. Even so we managed a reasonable collection of records and there were a couple of more open areas that were explored.

We lunched by the pool where we met an angler who was so overwhelmed by our party that he packed up and left. Whilst lunching some of the locals sneaked up on us and barred our exit. Fortunately they got bored before we did and moved on allowing us to escape to the higher ground.

Did I mention the heat? No? It was very, very, very hot. We had to walk uphill to return to the village so every opportunity to stop and sit down to admire the outstanding views was taken. On regaining the village we had a quick look around the churchyard then sought refuge from the heat in the local hostelry.

Beckbury 17th July
We said goodbye to one of our regular members to-day as she departed Shropshire for more  southern climes. Tears should have been falling from the sky but it was HOT, possibly hotter than Little Wenlock the previous week.

We had our first shieldbug within five minutes of starting. A speculative tap of some White dead-nettle producing several distinctive nymphs. We even had a longhorn beetle and micro-moth within 10 minutes. Target species achieved, another tetrad ticked off, we could have gone home, but we pressed on.

The first part of the walk took us through tall rough grassland close to the River Worfe and it provided a rich harvest of insects for us to chase, catch or miss. Two more shieldbug species quickly followed.

The grassland gave way to a field margin which provided little shelter from the sun. We made hastily for the woodland at the end of the field. We lunched. This was a mistake as the entire mosquito population of the area sensed our presence and descended upon us.

Lunch over for ourselves and uninvited guests we searched the woodland. The path through the wood brought us to a road. We had a choice – return the way we came or follow the road back to Beckbury? We chose the road – wrong choice the enclosed tarmacked road just magnified the heat. We trudged back looking forward to refreshments in the pub opposite where we had parked. Exhausted and parched we returned to the cars only to find the pub was closed. Disaster.

Plan B was implemented and we drove to Norton and wished Amanda all the best in the comfort of the Hundred House.

Granville 24th July
It was a huge surprise to find that there are no shieldbug records for the northern part of Granville so we attempted to redress the situation. This was achieved more quickly than normal as a Hawthorn shieldbug nymph was found before we left the car park.

This was to be a split visit with the first part in the northern end of the country park then to the tetrad to the south along Grange Lane.

We spent a lot of time in the clearing/picnic area between the Pump and Winding Houses. This was abuzz with insects and it had picnic tables so we could sit down to identify what we had caught – always a bonus! We spent a lot of time watching the activities of a dragonfly. Could we identify it? No. We tried looking, creeping up on it, binoculars and finally a camera. The photograph was sent to the County Recorder who identified it as a Common darter. Thank you Sue.

We transferred to the main car park and made our way to Grange Lane which runs from the country park towards Redhill. Although we found lots of insects in this area we failed to any shieldbugs.

We returned over the Western stockpile and were treated to the sight of Purple hairstreaks in the lower branches of the oaks that border the mound.

By the way it was hot.

Sutton Wood 31st July
It rained – so we stayed at home.

The Lawley 7th August

An away day to The Lawley and a three tetrad walk was our next outing. Parking at the north end of the Lawley and walking along the path at the foot of its western slope takes you through three tetrads none of which have any Shieldbug records. So the challenge was on.

Tetrad 1 – Green shieldbug nymph found in the car park. One down two to go. We also found a Mother of Pearl so that’s micro-moths done for this tetrad. We eventually left the tetrad and with nets for sweeping and trays for beating made our way into the second tetrad.

Tetrad 2 – Green shieldbug nymph located, micro-moth caught and identified: we even managed to identify a spider in the absence of our expert who was looking after his grandson (Araneus diadematus – the spider not the grandson). We lunched.

Tetrad 3 – Yet another Green shieldbug nymph was found. So we had a hat-trick of shieldbugs but were lacking species diversity – still better than none.

We returned to the car park content that we had achieved our objective, sad that we had not seen any longhorn beetles but rejoicing in the number of butterflies that were on the wing.

Sutton Wood 14th August
The Severn Gorge Countryside Trust very kindly opened up there car park for us so we were saved the long trek from the public car park in Coalport or negotiating spaces in the pub just across the bridge who were not very welcoming when approached for our previous (and abandoned) assault on Sutton Wood.

As seems to be the norm the car park provided rich pickings. Birch and Parent shieldbugs were found as well as several ladybirds and bugs. There were a mixture of shieldbug nymphs and adults, so the lifecycle is progressing. We eventually tore ourselves away from the car park and made our way along the lane at the top of the woods soon coming across a Green shieldbug nymph. So three species in the first 100 yards of our trip (or 90 minutes if you prefer).

A hornet was found chewing wood in the hedgerow. It was so engrossed in its task that it allowed us to get very close to photograph it.

We continued to explore the woodland some of which was rather dark and dingy – not good for insects but great for fungi – until it started raining, when we gave up.

So you and I are now up to date with our activities, until next week when I shall be behind again.

Keith Fowler