Dothill, Granville & Tweedale Surveys

Bluebells courtesy of Lis Dalby

April 24th saw us at Dothill for the first Wrekin Forest Volunteers survey of 2009.

I thought I hadn't visited this area before but on arrival I realised I'd travelled right through the centre of it a few months back when I walked part of the Silkin Way from Bratton to Apley Castle but a full day surveying the wildlife was a far better prospect than merely walking through!

As a wildlife site it scores high on so many grounds; ponds, open spaces and woodland juxtapose comfortably with each other offering diverse habitats and scope for investigation especially when crawling on all-fours holding a field-glass!

Pond-dipping was something many of us hadn't done before and I have to say we all found it fascinating. What surprised me was that life exists in the most unlikely places; scrape the bottom of a very murky pond with a net, deposit contents into tray, wait a minute or so and the whole thing comes alive!

On arrival at the outskirts of Pond 1, and whilst the scouts led by Pete forged a way through the undergrowth, we were blessed with a dozen or more Speckled Woods excitedly flitting around an apple tree. Fabulous sight!

Photo by Keith Fowler

There were also patches of the beautiful Lady's Smock...

Photo by Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Much more to be done with identifying wild flowers, trees, insects, birds, woodlice, spiders etc etc. Lots of records have now been sent to Pete for submission into the Trust database using the spreadsheet template (there's a copy in the yahoo group forum if you want to download one for yourself for future recording).

A week later on May 1st saw another great day blessed mostly with sunshine although clouding over slightly in the afternoon for our trip to Granville. This was actually planned as a much larger area to survey going as far north as Muxton Marshes but we all seemed to get way-laid with so much to see and record even as we clambered out of the bus - so much more to do in the surrounding areas.

Having only visited Granville Nature Reserve a couple of times before I found a deeper delve was particularly interesting and again a diverse habitat worthy of further exploration.

One of the many interesting insects we came across was a Cuckoo Bee which mimics the bird of the same name, not by flying around singing cuckoo, buzz, cuckoo, buzz I may add, but by virtue of the fact that it lays its eggs in another bumble bee hive and doesn't even thank them for looking after their brood.

May 8 saw us tripping the light fantastic in Tweedale Wood.

A rather unique area seemingly squashed between an industrial estate and a caravan park but a a fascinating place with lots of plant and creature potential. One of the first plants recorded was a spotted orchid of type yet unknown until it flowers.

And a day-flying moth caught in the net again remains unidentified as yet but in the meantime Les has christened it Elvis as it appears to be wearing a gold lame coat (that's not 'lame' by the way - should have an accent over the 'e' but can't seem to find one anywhere!).


And then there was this strange thingy on a silver birch tree...

Photo by Rhys Perry

I was convinced that it was that old favourite; the Face-Mask Fungus but with due diligence Rhys managed to correctly ID it. This short report has been lifted from the forum;-

Enteridium lycoperdon - is a fairly common species of slime mould, and is typically seen on standing dead trees in the spring, or on large pieces of fallen wood. Alder is a common host; the slime mould emerges from beetle holes in the bark.
Rhys

Thanks for the heads up on a great fungi ID website too Rhys with Visual Fungi Have added this as a link on the sidebar for everyone's future reference. Great site!

We were also very fortunate to get a rare sighting of the very elusive Wood Goose - possibly the first in the UK...
Obviously searching in vain for a mate as he has a little tear falling from his eye. Ahhhh.

Where Is It Competition

I thought I'd occasionally drop in a competition pic offering one of my hugely popular prizes from my little box of everything. I don't think this will prove too difficult for anyone but as my long-standing friend Vera Wayfromer says 'it's the early nerd that catches the tern'.

You'll never know whether you're in first though as I'll be withholding all answers for a few days! Pop your answers in 'Comments' at the bottom of this post.

Caption competition
No prizes for this one and apologies to Graham and Jenny but I just couldn't resist it! Suitably silly suggestions for a caption in Comments below please. Thanks to both for permission to publish.

Garden Moth Scheme

As Nigel's porch-trapping seems to have dried-up for the time being Les and I are enjoying getting slightly ahead of the game!

The numbers in my moth trap are never very great but occasionally a little gem pops in to say hello. Last Friday saw my first Brimstone moth in the trap.

Just 7 moths across 7 species caught including a Scalloped Hazel, Pebble Hook Tip and a Flame Shoulder so a nice small neat little mix - as is this week's slideshow

Click the collage to view the slideshow

Sunny April

It's a wonderful April Sunday and haven't we been blessed with some fabulous weather of late? The early butterflies are dancing along the hedgerows, trees and bushes are bursting into leaf and flower, and the bluebells are just about in full blue bloom.

April is one of my favourite months and for the last few years I don't remember there being a bad one as far as weather is concerned but then my motto has always been 'There's no such thing as bad weather; just degrees of good'!

The WuFuV's get back to work next Friday with some wildlife surveying at Dothill which we're all looking forward to. In the meantime I thought I'd just drop in a quick post with a handful of photo's which have been uploaded to the WFV Yahoo Group. This forum (open to all) has seen a great deal of activity just lately so if you haven't signed up yet - now might be a good time! Click here to join It's full of superb pictures, links, files and sparkling conversation.

Here's a great pic from Les of a Bullfinch and Goldfinch at the same feeder;

And another from Les;

Isn't that just fantastic?

And a real scoop from Keith with a Brambling. Don't know about you but I've yet to see one in my garden let alone have the foresight to rush inside for the camera;-

Being a fan of moths I was particularly impressed by Nigel's male Early Thorn (Selenia dentaria);-

Nigel continues to beat Les and me (both using moth traps) with stunning pics from his porch!

Not to be outdone though I managed a Comma butterfly in Ercall Woods;-

These are just a few of the many fabulous pics uploaded by WuFuV's - take a look around the various folders - I'm sure you'll be as amazed as I am! Apart from birds and moths you'll see trees, insects, spiders, flowers, fungi and a selection of Keith's trip to Sri Lanka.

Please feel free to upload your own selection. Add them to existing members folders or create your own.

Catch you all on Friday!

The Horse-log Blog

Thanks to Penny for the title - or maybe it was Horse-Blog!

What a great day we had on Friday for horse-logging training and then on Saturday the demonstration which was open to the public. I guess around 70 people visited during the day so it was well attended.



Refreshments in the way of Penny-soup, many cakes (including 2 rescued from Les's freezer) plus tea and coffee all offered free and ably administered by Lis and a few helpers.

A fiery fire burned within the log surround on both days and the weather was especially kind to us.
The logging demonstration was a huge success and it was my first insight into what a Working Horse Experience is. Thanks to Phil Wilson for bringing along Jeff the Clydesdale horse - a very docile and handsome creature - and the horse was great too!

Actually Phil is far from docile; in fact I'm sure he won't mind if I refer to him as Mad Phil! He has a sense of humour that just kept me and many others laughing for most of the day. Great guy with an obvious love of heavy horses and the countryside.

Assisted very ably by his lovely (and no doubt long-suffering) wife Lindsay they demonstrated exactly what horse-logging is all about including a run down of the equipment and introduction to Jeff the Clydesdale who does exactly as he's told except when he doesn't want to, which seemed to be most of the time!

Jeff is a magnificent 10-year-old working horse standing some 17 hands and weighing in at around a ton and so obviously happy doing what he's bred to do - working the land! I was surprised to hear that he is one of only 900 Clydesdales left in the UK. And long may they continue to be bred.

This is Mad Phil showing just how mad he really is by log ski-ing around the trickiest corner of the run!

Thanks to Lis for this shot of Phil attaching the chain to a log

Once they'd done a couple of runs dragging a heavy log down the path in Ercall Wood to the lane and back Jeff virtually dragged anyone else who held the ropes; he knew what he had to do, knew where he had to go and was a most delightful companion. Thanks for a great couple of days Jeff!

Great picture of Penny who seems to be wondering where Jeff went!

Even Pete who openly admits to being 'not big on horses' enjoyed being dragged down the hill and then pulled even quicker back up it!

And so it was time to clear the site and put the Working Horse Crew back into their boxes!

Click the collage to view the slideshow