Time for a Holiday! - we usually chose a different location to visit each year, in order to explore both the different places, and the different wildlife they contain. We often book a full week away so we can explore the area properly, but money is tight this year so, we've made do with a mid-week break: 2 nights down in the Wyre Forest. It might only be for a few days, but we aim to see as much as possible...
Day 1 - Pound Green Walk
As the intro previously stated, we don't have a great deal of time. We are staying in a pokey little Travelodge in Kidderminster for 2 nights, and so we decided to go for a day out on the way down to the hotel. Our first walk starts in a small village called Pound Green, and we picked it as it is right on the edge of the Wyre Forest (seen in image below).
Map source - Google Maps
The Forest itself is classed as 'Ancient Woodland' which means that most of it has been left undisturbed for at least 400 years. This gives a great home for all sorts of wildlife, but we will be here to look for butterflies
After a rather stressful drive down to the location...
plenty of roadworks, and then we got lost twice, once due to a poorly signed diversion, the other down to me not reading a map properly
...we finally made it. It had just gone 1pm, so we had a quick spot of lunch, before heading out onto the trails.
The walk started to head down a small gravel farm track, and within a few minutes, I had already seen the first butterflies of the day
Gatekeeper - Pyronia tithonus
Speckled Wood - Pararge aegeria
The walk we were following had been taken from a Butterfly Book - "Butterflies of the West Midlands"
In the front of the book are the various species accounts for each of the 40+ species of butterflies that can be found in the area. In the back are 20 walks showing butterfly 'hotspots', and so with the book in one hand (and an OS map in the other) we headed off into the wilderness:
some of the paths were a little 'overgrown'!
We crossed over a random pointless bridge (presumably the ground becomes very wet and boggy during the Winter months), and then we found what appeared to be thousands of Wood Ants
Wood Ant - Formica rufa group
The nest for these was a massive bank alongside the path, they were everywhere! I did my best to get some shots, but they were super quick, and I didn't want to get bitten.
About 45 minutes in, we were already having trouble with the directions from the book. There were footpaths dotted all over the place, and they kept crisscrossing the route we were on. The instructions from the book appeared to be deliberately vague, and have the time we were relying on guesswork.
We appeared to be on the right path for now, but I could tell this wasn't going to be a relaxing stroll through the woods!
Which was a shame, because it was a beautiful trail... wherever we were!
There were still more butterflies to see in between checking directions
Green-veined White - Pieris napi
Silver-washed Fritilary - Argynnis paphia
This Fritillary looks a little worse for wear... I suspect a bird has tried to catch this one
Ringlet - Aphantopus hyperantus
So that makes 5 species so far... plus I'd already seen a Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) AND a Large Skipper (Ochlodes sylvanus), so thats 7 species so far... pretty good going I think!
The route might be awkward and poorly laid out, but the location itself was absolutely stunning. And not just Butterflies, there were lots of other things to admire too
Common centaury - Centaurium erythraea
Solitary Wasp - no idea on species name for this one!
Field Grasshopper - Chorthippus brunneus
After awhile, the path emerged from the undergrowth and opened out to a more obvious track. We were starting to get a little warm at this point, not helped by struggling with the description of the route from the book.
Mother nature did her best to distract me, with some more butterflies...
Ringlet - Aphantopus hyperantus - mating pair
Ringlet - Aphantopus hyperantus - view with wings open
...and then I had a fab surprise!
I was looking at the knapweed flowers, when I noticed there was a hoverfly hanging underneath... I thought this was slightly peculiar, and when I took a closer look, I realised there was a little spider who had caught it for her lunch.
When she realised she had been spotted, she dropped her lunch and tried to hide from me, but it was too late, I had her in my sights
Flower crab spider - Misumena vatia
This Spider has been high on my Wishlist for ages... such a distinctive species. It is one of a number of crab spider species we have here in the UK, all of which are small (approximately 1cm in length) and all of which are ambush hunters. They hide on plants, near flowers, and pounce on flies and other flying insects who try to feed on the flowers.
The flower Crab spider is different to the other species, as it is partialy able to change her colour in order to match the plant she is hiding on. You can see here, the shade of green closely matches the knapweed plant stem.
Really cool to see, and definitely my highlight from today!
After the clear forest path, we then turned down a grass ride. The fence was mentioned in the book, so we were confident this was the correct way.
We then got a little confused over the wording of the text in the book, and spent 30 minutes wandering down various dead ends, until we worked out where we should go
path to nowhere...after 15 minutes walking in this direction, we came across a busy main road... definitely gone wrong somewhere!
There were still stuff to photograph, although I confess that by this point I was starting to lose interest, I was more concerned with finding the correct route back to the start
Hairy Shield bug nymph - Dolycoris baccarum
Speckled Wood - Pararge aegeria
The path changed one more time, to take us through this conifer woodland, and then there was a couple more errors as we made wrong turns through a random housing estate... and then finally, we made it back to the car
Considering the walk was advertised as a 5km walk, with a suggested time of 1 hour 30 minutes, we nearly doubled that with all the errors...oops!
That said, it was a fab location. There were lots of different butterflies seen, along with a great supporting cast of other invertebrates. The route was really scenic, and passed though lots of different habitat, it just would have helped if the book description had been clearer!
After the walk, we drove the 20 minutes into Kidderminster (where we managed to get lost in the one-way chaos of the village of Bewdsley on the way), and arrived at our Travelodge. After a quick shower and change, we headed across to the pub next door for Dinner and had a well earnt rest.
Tomorrow, we will be heading out to Upton Warren for a spot of birdwatching... hopefully it'll be an easier day than today!
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