Holes in the ground

Errata

Two errors on my part that I need to correct with thanks to the readers that pointed them out.

In "Bridge of Delights" I included a photograph of Flowering rush. Unfortunately I misinterpreted this as a rush in flower, not quite the same thing. Flowering rush (Butomus umbellatus), despite its common name, is not a member of the rush family.

In "A baker's dozen of butterfly species" in the report of our visit to Dothill I misidentified the photograph of a Meadow brown as a Gatekeeper.

Both blogs have been updated to correct these errors.

Blackbridge Quarry, Wednesday 10th August 2016

Shropshire Wildlife Trust kindly gave us permission to visit this quarry which is sandwiched between Pant and Llynclys Hill. You are unlikely to stumble across it as it is no more than a hole in the ground in woodland, shielded from unsuspecting eyes on the lane that passes it by the trees. The entrance is easy to miss being a narrow descent into the gloom.

When you do find the entrance you have to negotiate a wire fence, a steep, sometimes slippy, descent down some soil steps and then the gate.



The gate is locked.

Fortunately we had a key.

And it worked.

For the sake of accuracy I must point out that the photograph of the gate was taken from the other side after we had passed through it.

The quarry is in two parts and the flora is different in the two with a marked change as you pass from one to the other.

The first part which opens out in front of you when you have finally managed to get in is more rocky and sparsely vegetated in the open area with a dark and dingy section at the far side in the shadow of the quarry face.







Marjoram was common sight in this area



The second part was more of a grassland but still with scrubby areas against the quarry face.





We spent our day wandering around these two areas looking at whatever caught our interest. 

That was it.

There is not much more to relate really other than we gathered around a convenient rocky ledge for lunch. Nothing of note happened that is worth reporting and there was the usual chatter about cameras.

There was high excitement at the end of the day, which I will get to later.

But what did we see?

Once again my colleagues have come to my rescue and provided lots of photographs which my camera failed to take. So a picture section follows to give you a flavour of our observations.



Six-spot burnet.



Common earwig.



Harebell.



Ploughman's spikenard.



Epistophe grossulariae.



Eristalis interruptus (also known as Eristalis nemorum). An excellent photograph capturing the courtship behaviour of a male as it hovers over a female trying to attract her attention and mate.



Helophilus pendulus.



Homo sapiens.



More Homo sapiens.



Knapweed.



Honey bee.



A teneral (freshly emerged) Sloe bug also know as a Hairy shieldbug.



An older Sloe bug.



Leucozona glaucia.



Meadow brown.



Pardosa species, probably Pardosa saltans.

So after we spent several happy hours exploring this wonderful site we prepared to leave. But someone had noticed another hole in the ground by the gate. This was actually a hole in the quarry face. A man-made cave? If it was a cave would there be cave spiders present?

Unfortunately the entrance to the "cave" was covered by a grill and it was locked so we could not get in.



This did not stop us. A powerful torch was produced and its beam caught sight of a cave spider which promptly scuttled off to hide from the light that was intruding into its life. However the characteristic egg sacs suspended from the roof remained and were duly photographed.



So high excitement at the end of the day. 

Thank you to Stephen Mitchell, Jim Cresswell and Bob Kemp for supplying many of the photographs in this report. Thank you to Shropshire Wildlife Trust for giving us access. An excellent site. An excellent day.

A poplar moth night at Wappenshall Wharf

Wappenshall Wharf - Friday 29th July

The Shropshire Moth Group (SMoG) arrived promptly at 8 pm to find the entrance locked, but this was soon resolved when a neighbour fortuitously arrived home with his takeaway and let us in.  After much discussion about where to locate the five traps we set them up and then took time to discuss the intricacies of trapping with the members of the Shrewsbury and Newport Canal Trust who had joined us for the evening.  They in turn took us on a tour of the site and we were surprised to see the wharf so densely overgrown during the summer.

            Conditions were ideal, warm and cloudy with only a light breeze.  As dusk descended, bat detectors came out and the slap, slap, slap rhythm revealed Pipistrelles flying low overhead.  Then the unmistakeable screech of an owl was heard, followed moments later by the cream shadow of a barn owl swooping silently over our heads.  It is thought that it may have nested in one of the old buildings, as they did last year.  What a treat!  It boded well for the rest of the night and so it proved.

             The first moth to arrive was a female Ghost moth (Hepialus humuli humuli) that nestled in the grass adjacent to the trap.  The female is larger than the male and is a honey yellow, whilst the smaller male is white.  They used to be quite common but like many moths and butterflies are becoming less so.  The Telford area seems to be quite a hot spot for them and this was a great start to the evening.  The males usually gather in leks, hovering over grasses looking for females.  We did not see this spectacle, nor did the female lay any eggs in the pot.  When she does, they shoot out as if from a small cannon and are quite dry, rolling around like mini ball bearings.

            Another amazing moth to arrive was the spectacular Poplar Hawkmoth (Laothoe populi) that made an appearance next to the wharf.  This is one of the largest British moths and, depending on season, may have two generations, the second being in early August.  It comes easily to light and will sometimes sit happily on your hand.

Caught in several traps was the beautiful Blood-vein moth (Timandra comae), easily recognisable by the diagonal pink/red line running from forewing tip to the trailing edge.  It was fresh in colour and must have just emerged as the pink fringing on the wings fades to a dull brown with age.

            An interesting moth to find was the Olive moth (Ipimorpha subtusa).  This moth is described as local, which means it is unusual to find but not rare.  Like the Poplar Hawkmoth it likes marshy, wetland areas.  It overwinters as an egg and has only one generation, the adults being on the wing between July and September.  The larva feeds in leaves spun together high up in the trees.  Presumably this gives them some protection from predators like birds and bats. The female moth was taken home and laid eggs before her release the following day.  Her eggs are particularly beautiful, being pink with white fringes.

It is the first time they have ever been photographed.  The eggs will be nurtured and photographed at each stage of their development.

            The Trust members were surprised to see how colourful and intricate some of the moths are, just as beautiful as many butterflies.  Moths such as the Brimstone, Mother of Pearl, Phoenix, Small Rivulet, Small Magpie, Yellow-tail, Riband Wave and many more.  To see any of these go to http://www.ukmoths.org.uk/

           

Our evening concluded when John found a large toad, which sat quite calmly in his hand for us to view and, happily, did not seem interested in our collection of moths!  With that we switched off the traps, recorded the last few moths and potted up those that we needed to take home to identify in daylight.  Thus came to an end another SMoG moth night.

Thanks are extended to the Shrewsbury and Newport Canal Trust who allowed us to trap on their site and to whom we wish every success in their endeavours to restore the Wharf and associated canal.

Margaret Mitchell

Shropshire Moth Group

Photographs courtesy of David Williams and Tony Jacques

Bridge of delights

Wollerton Wetlands - Wednesday 3rd August 2016

Ten of us gathered at the "pavilion" in Wollerton, an innocuous looking small brick building with a notice board at the side of the road. It does have, however, a drop kerb onto the pavement to provide parking space for half a dozen cars.

Am I old-fashioned in calling it a pavement? I note with bemusement that many signs proclaiming a blockage to this means of pedestrian progress often use the term "footway". Referring to my dictionary I note that both are British words: pavement is "a raised paved or asphalted path for pedestrians at the side of a road"; footway is "a path or track for pedestrians". So all pavements are footways but not all footways are pavements. Well that's cleared that up. Out of interest you may wish to know that my spellchecker does not like the word "footway".

We eventually left the cars and walked with some purpose to the wetlands. To get access we had to cross a bridge over the River Tern. Whilst most of us crossed without giving the structure much of a glance to do what we wanted to do:






Some were drawn to the concrete and wood of the bridge:



They spent a long time peering at this and that, taking photographs and generally having a good time. And the subject of their fascination?

Lichens.



The wood and concrete were covered in them.

A family of mute swans on the river took no notice.



We dragged ourselves away from the bridge and made excellent progress, moving fifty yards or so along the grass footway to a small clearing overlooking one of the pools that was quite a sun trap. Coffee was taken.



The swans are the same family. Apparently they had climbed out of the river and walked to the pool whilst we were moving along. Perhaps our activities had attracted their interest.

There was plenty of figwort about and sightings of the figwort sawfly were plentiful.



Another visitor that came within camera range was the "fold-wing" cranefly Ptychoptera contaminata:

.

We moved on. 

To a spot that I had visited three times before last year. 

I found the female of a planthopper that I could not identify. (Females can be difficult or impossible to identify to species.) All my attempts on those occasions to find a male were met with failure. So I was determined to find one - although I could never be certain it was the male of the same species unless I found a pair in the act of making more! I gave the area a thorough search and found a candidate male which turned out to be a small striped planthopper called Anoscopus flavostriatus (no photograph as it is too small for my camera but you can see it on the British Bugs web site here.) 

Flushed with possible success lunch was taken.

Refuelled and refreshed we continued on our merry way. The first thing to catch our eye was a Brimstone butterfly that was clinging on to a flower head.



Another butterfly was a skipper. I await confirmation as to whether the black tips to the antennae indicate that it is an Essex skipper.



Other finds were:

A Narrow-bordered five spot burnet



A burnet pupal case attached to a grass stem



A striking hymenopteran that no-one was keen to identify!



A sloe bug (or hairy shieldbug, if you prefer) juvenile



And a full grown adult Birch shield bug



As we rounded the end of one of the pools to make our way back to the start we noted a Flowering rush.



And on some fleabane to hoverfly Eristalis arbustorum:



The footway brought us back to our starting point and again the bridge proved a focal point as the group relaxed for a few moments before making our way back to the cars and home.



My thanks to Jim Cresswell and Peter Hodgkinson for providing photographs to supplement my own in this piece.