30 Days Wild | Day 4 - Rowley Hills wander

Today I went on a guided walk jointly arranged by the Friends of Rowley Hills (who I am closely involved with) and Sandnats (who I would probably be involved with if I had more time/wasn't about to move to Malvern!). The day was cloudy, still and humid, but to begin with we didn't see many butterflies. However as the afternoon wore on, the temperature rose and the butterflies started to become more active. Small Heath was the species we saw the most of, and we also saw a few Common Blue, a Large Skipper, a Large White and a few Green-veined Whites. There were also a few day-flying moths about - loads of Burnet Companions and a few Latticed Heaths, and lots of Burnet (Five/Six-spot) caterpillars and chrysalises. Along with the large range of wildflowers and grasses on display, it all made for a most enjoyable walk!

Soft Brome (Bromus hordeaceus).

Goatsbeard (Tragopogon pratensis).

Bird's-foot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus).

Common Cat's-ear (Hypochaeris radicata).

Mouse-ear Hawkweed (Hieracium pilosella).

Silver Hairgrass (Aira caryophyllea).

Yellow-rattle (Rhinanthus minor).

Tall Mouse-ear Hawkweed (Hieracium praealtum).

Lesser Trefoil (Trifolium dubium).

Burnet Companion (Euclidia glyphica).

Hard Rush (Juncus inflexus).

Red Fescue (Festuca rubra).

Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus).

Caterpillar of a Five- or Six-spot Burnet Moth.

Spheroidal weathering of dolerite (HDR).

Spheroidal weathering of dolerite (HDR).

Small Heath (Coenonympha pamphilus).

Great Lettuce (Lactuca virosa).

The Rowley Hills (HDR).

Stroll on the Rowley Hills with SandNats and my new camera

On Saturday I went on an excellent stroll over the Rowley Hills with SandNats, a group I hadn't been out with before. They are a super knowledgeable bunch; the focus of the walk was invertebrates (about which I know practically nothing) so it was a eye-opening experience for me. I still prefer birds, plants and rocks though ;o)

I was also super excited to try out my new (to me) camera! It is actually my brother's old camera, but he had recently upgraded to a newer model and very kindly gave me his old one. It's a Lumix G2 which is a few years old now, but compared to the cameras I was using previously it's a massive step up! It does have one problem with it (the reason my bro decided to upgrade) - it possibly has a bit of grit or something in the lens as it is a bit jerky when focussing. BUT, with the help of a handy adaptor I will be able to use all the lenses from my ancient film SLR (a Praktica PL nova 1b) with it! This will hopefully mean I can get some better photos of birds, obviously an exciting prospect. The adaptor only arrived today so I couldn't use any other lenses on the Rowley Hills on Saturday, but I was still very pleased with the first photos I took with the camera.

Large Skipper (Ochlodes sylvanus) on Lucerne (Medicago sativa).

Robin's Pincushion gall produced by the wasp Diplolepis rosae.

Common Blue butterfly (Polyommatus icarus).

If I was a Bee-eater prospecting the UK, I'd think this would make a fine home. Come on Bee-eaters, you know you want to.

The find of the day! Six-belted Clearwing (Bembecia ichneumoniformis).

Another great find, Roesel's Bush-cricket (Metrioptera roeselii).

The Rowley Hills.

Very common but I love the fuzzy thistledown of Creeping Thistle (Cirsium arvense).

Me playing with my new camera (Mike Poulton took this one!)

The pond at the edge of Bury Hill Park.

Love the Rowley Hills.

30 Days Wild | Day 27 - wonderful Rowley Hills

I'd been looking forward to day 27 of 30 Days Wild - I was going on a guided walk around the Rowley Hills organised by the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham & the Black Country, led by plant and butterfly expert Mike Poulton. I'd been plugging the walk too through the Friends of Rowley Hills, the relatively-newly formed group I'm involved with, and it was great to see so many people there - 25 in all. It's important we spread the word about how awesome the Rowley Hills are as they are in fragmented ownership and threatened by development.

Today we were hoping to see plenty of butterflies, including the site speciality Marbled White, and some nice wildflowers - including hopefully rediscovering the Bee Orchid I found last year. The walk more than lived up to our expectations! The weather was great for butterflies - warm, quite still, and mostly sunny. We saw six butterfly species - Ringlet, Large Skipper, Marbled White, Common Blue, Small Heath and Small Tortoiseshell; the Marbled Whites I think had just started to emerge, there were not many but they looked very fresh and smart. We also saw some day-flying moths - Five- and Six-spot Burnets, Burnet Companion and Latticed Heath; and bird-wise there were plenty of Whitethroats singing from the Hawthorn scrub, singing Chiffchaff and Blackcap, a Dunnock feeding its young, lots of House Martins feeding overhead, and a brief Kestrel. Not only did I re-find the Bee Orchid, someone else tracked down another one nearby - result! Here are some photos of the walk!

Small but perfectly formed, Bee Orchid 1 (Ophrys apifera).

Bee Orchid 2 (Ophrys apifera).

The Rowley Hills.

Everyone getting stuck in.

The Rowley Hills.

A very obliging Small Heath (Coenonympha pamphilus) butterfly.

Glorious Marbled White (Melanargia galathea) butterfly.

A small Common Toad (Bufo bufo)!

Large Skipper (Ochlodes sylvanus) butterfly.

The Rowley Hills.

Rowley Hills wildflower walk

On Saturday I headed over to the Rowley Hills once more for a wildflower walk organised by the Birmingham & Black Country Wildlife Trust and led by local ecologist and botany expert Mike Poulton. There was a good number of attendees on the walk, keen to see some lovely wildflowers and hopefully some butterflies too. Although the weather forecast had been a bit grim, the rain didn't start until after the walk had finished, and the still, humid conditions were quite good for butterflies and day-flying moths!

The Rowley Hills looking grand in the June sunshine.

Mike explained a bit about the site's history; the Rowley Hills are former quarries, which were used as landfill once their working life had ended, and after that were capped with soil. They are now one of the largest expanses of unmanaged grassland in Birmingham and the Black Country. Although the landfill was capped several decades ago, the toxicity of the underlying soil has mostly prevented larger plants from becoming established, so succession has been kind of halted. However now the site is slowly being colonised by Hawthorn and Bramble scrub which is of some concern as although it is a valuable habitat in its own right (it was absolutely teeming with Whitethroats for example), it replaces the grassland which is inhabited by a different and more diverse range of species. Although the site is accessible to the public, the Rowley Hills has been divided into small land plots by its owner who is trying to sell them off, and as a result is in fragmented ownership. The Wildlife Trust has bought one of the plots, their Portway Hill reserve, and because they're not able to manage the whole site, are removing all the encroaching scrub in their plot to help preserve the grassland. Together with the Hawthorn scrub in other areas, this will help maintain a mosaic of different habitats to promote overall higher species diversity.

Here are some of the plants we found, hope I remembered all their names correctly!

Crested Dog's-tail (Cynosurus cristatus).

Yellow Rattle (Rhinanthus minor). This is doing very well on the site - although it photosynthesises, it can also parasitise the roots of more competitive grass species, stealing their nutrients and reducing their vigour! In this way it helps engineer the ecosystem by preventing these grass species from taking over, thus maintaining the diversity of the plant community.

Lots of Yellow Rattle (Rhinanthus minor).

Bush Vetch (Vicia sepium) with a Common Carder Bee (Bombus pascuorum).

Ahem, I can't quite remember which Crane's-bill this was, I may have been distracted by trying to photograph a moth when Mike told us! I think it might be French Crane's-bill (Geranium endressii).

A weird mutated form of the Crane's-bill with curled petals.

Compact Rush (Juncus conglomeratus).

Smooth Rush (Juncus effusus).

Apparently one of the rarest plants in Birmingham and the Black Country, Tall Mouse-ear Hawkweed (Pilosella praealta).

Mouse-ear Hawkweed (Pilosella officinarum).

Bee Orchid (Ophrys apifera). We were all dead chuffed to have found this, it was in pristine condition too!

Hare's-foot Clover (Trifolium arvense).

Thyme-leaved Sandwort (Arenaria serpyllifolia).

Lucerne (Medicago sativa).

Meadow Vetchling (Lathyrus pratensis).

And here are some of the butterflies and day-flying moths we spotted! As well as these, the ones I didn't manage to photograph were Green Hairstreak (yay finally!), Large Skipper, Small Heath, Peacock and Speckled Wood.

Common Blue butterfly female (Polyommatus icarus). Not quite sure how I managed to get this in focus, but I like it!

Mating Common Blue butterflies (Polyommatus icarus). Dead pleased to have seen this!

Caterpillar of Five-spot Burnet moth (Zygaena trifolii).

Latticed Heath moth (Chiasmia clathrata).

Burnet Companion moth (Euclidia glyphica).

Five-spot Burnet moth (Zygaena trifolii).