Worcestershire Record No. 19 November 2005 p. 68

Three field meeting were organised for 2005:

This is an extensive set of SSSI herb-rich meadows lying in the old Eldersfield Marsh and one of the County’s most important grassland sites. The meadows have a very rich flora. Our visit aimed at recording invertebrates from an area with few such records. On the day the weather was fairly cool so fewer invertebrates were recorded than might have been expected from such an area although the results were of course worthwhile. Another visit in better weather and another time of the year would be useful.

We are most grateful to Kim Jackson for permission to visit the site.

This field day was rather different to our usual site visits. We started on the outskirts of the cricket ground and village green in woodland with many big oaks and then worked our way round the Green looking at rough grassland and a small pond. From there we followed a footpath past a small field enhanced by planted wild flower seed and on to Windmill Tump. This interesting site contains many ancient oaks. From there we follow a track leading down to the River Severn, returning through fields to Bushley Green. These travels took us through a variety of habitats and was distinctly more energetic walk than many of use usually undertake on a recording day! Once again the weather was quite poor for insects being cool and cloudy. Nevertheless we recorded a good range of species but left with the feeling that we could do better, given warmer weather.

We are most grateful to Martin Roberts for organising this day for us.

This visit was arranged by John Partridge encouraged by other recorders living in Redditch. The Park is extensive with a variety of habitats and the part we visited included cut-grassland, rough grassland, herb-rich grassland, damp grassland, open scrub, dense scrub, pools, streams, young woodland and an ancient oak! Once again the weather was cool and cloudy, not the best for insects, but the visit was very worthwhile as in revealed the first colony of Roesel’s bushcrickets in Worcestershire and the uncommon hoverfly Volucella inanis amongst many other records. On a later return visit to check the Roesel’s Gary Farmer found the first colony of Long-winged Coneheads in the county. Redditch obviously has a lot to offer the naturalist!

We are grateful to Nathaniel Healy, Landscape and Countryside Manager, for permission to make a recording visit to the Arrow Valley Park.

About 20 people booked for these meetings and naturalists with a good range of abilities attended all the meetings. The records submitted so far and entered on to the WBRC database are tabulated at the end of this Worcestershire Record. Very many thanks to all who have sent in records.

Species Lists for the Recording Days: (These are in tab-delimited  text files which will load into an Excel or other spreadsheet if required)