Brewood & Loynton Moss

I'm a little behind, not that I haven't been looking & taking photos at our moorings, but I just haven't managed to put them on the blog.

We stayed at Brewood in Staffs for 2 nights, mainly as the weather was so wet we didn't fancy moving. I didn't see much in the way of interesting plants or bugs, but we did have some feathered visitors beside the boat. I used M as a hide to keep the camera dry!



Moorhen colecting leaves



Little grebe - I haven't seen many on the canals

Grey heron opposite the hatch

A few days later we stopped just North of Norbury Junction so that I could visit Loynton Moss Nature Reserve which is managed by the Staffs Wildlife Trust. I had a nice wander and took a few photos. Here's a selection of photos of the reserve, bugs & plants, some I've managed to identify & some I haven't! I wasn't actually next to Muriel, but never mind!

The bog/reed bed

Reeds recently chopped back

Stagnant water channels around reserve

Boggy reserve edges

Reserve information board



Shield bug, possibly Forest variety

 


Leiobunum rotundum (male). They are one of about 27 UK species of Harvestman. They are Arachnids, but unlike a a spider they have an undivided body. The legs on this species are VERY long.

  

Herb Robert



Herb Robert leaves

Herb Robert flower

Nice moss, my book only has a few club moss, which doesn't include this!

Small Tortoiseshell butterly

Red Campion flower

There were a few new plants & bugs beside M along the canal. It was in a damp cutting overshadowed by large trees.

M's mooring

Giant Hogweed, the plant not Simon! His 6'7" provides the scale!

Unknown bee, don't know if he was dead or asleep.

Cardinal beetle of some sort

Another Harvestman, species unknown

Variety of house fly, possibly Phaonia valida

Male Dicronopalpus ramosus, another Harvestman.

Female Dicronopalpus ramosus. This one is a bit of a cheat, she was only on M because she was in my bug pot having been captured crawling up my neck! I climbed across a load of moored boats at Napton Junctoion to tie us up & must have brushed by somehow. I thought it was from her web, but can't have been as they don't produce silk.

Tixall Wide

We actually left Tixall Wide 2 days ago but this is the first chance I've had to update the blog. I thought there was meant to be loads of time once you've retired!

It's not a very good photo, but beside the grass verge was a row of small trees which included Crack-willow

Crack-willow

Amongst the grass was quite a lot of Greater Plantain & some Pineapple Weed that was quite a bit bigger than the plants at Alrewas

Greater Plantain

Pineapple Weed

There were also some buttercup plants. I now know that there are quite a few types of buttrecup. I think these were the Meadow variety.

Meadow Buttercup flower

Meadow Buttercup leaf

Meadow Buttercup fruit

There were also a couple of White Dead-nettle plants as well as the usual Common Nettles & brambles.

White Dead-nettle

A fisherman caught a 17 lb pike a few boat lengths away, so it very probably swam passed M! It was an amazing colour & obvioulsy had big teeth as it bit the chap that was helping to land it.

Worthy of a few fishermans tales!

Great Haywood



Mmoring at Great haywood beside Shugborough Estate

We only moored up overnight at Great Haywood but I did have a quick look at what was about. We were beside a weedy grass verge with a gravel path up the middle, beside which was a thin line of brambles & Common Nettles along a wire fence.

There were some small Meradowsweet & Hogweed plants beside the boat. The Hogweed was frequented by Syrphus ribesii, a type of Hover- fly.




Hogweed

  

Hover-fly (Syrphus ribesii)

























There were also a few flying insects which I think are bees, although they could be some sort of fly. I can't find them in my book anywhere, they were slightly bigger than the Hover-flies and also feeding on the Hogweed.



??



Handsacre

We've been moored here for a couple of days about 1/2 mile east of Handsacre, so I've had a bit of time for poking about.

We're on a small trimmed section of the bank between taller vegetation, with quite a varied range of plants at the water’s edge. These include Meadowsweet, Gipsywort, Common Nettle and Ribwort Plantain.
 

Meadowsweet



Meadowsweet fruit



Ribwort Plantain



Ribwort Plantain flower

Ribwort Plantain flower...again

 

Gipsywort























Beyond the grass path there is a bank of gorse with a few brambles, and oak trees of various sizes. The Gorse is the common variety & there are both Sessile & Pedunculate Oak, which is quite nice for the comparison, the Sessile having acorns with no stalks & the Pedunculate having long stalks.


Gorse (Ulex europaeus)




Cessile Oak



Pedunculate oak
















Whilst inspecting the gorse I found a weevil which looks very much like the Pea Weevil in my insect guide, which makes sense as the gorse is part of the legume family.

Pea Weevil - small bug, scary shadow!

The other bugs here have been in the boat rather than beside it! There was a female Common Earwig in the hatch, which got a bit frantic when it ended up on it's back in the pot

Common Earwig

Earwig trying to right itself

Several Crane Flies (Tipula oleracea) came on board both in the rear canopy and down below

Crane Fly (Daddy Long-legs)

Close-up Crane Fly

 

Daddy Long-legs spider minus a few legs!



A Daddy Long-legs spider wandered up Simon’s foot on the rear deck.

There have also been a few unidentified flies which I'll try & figure out:

?

?

And a spider which I think is probably a Zygiella x-notata, although I'm not sure:

Zygiella x-notata....maybe!

and again....

In the bird department there have been Mute Swans swimming past & a bunch of Mallards looking for crumbs by the hatch. They got some! There have been House Martins & Wood Pigeons hurtling about in the high winds.

Mallards after bread

Although not within Muriel’s 60 foot, I have also seen 2 Common Buzzards over the adjoining fields & a couple of interesting toadstools on the towpath, & a few Speckled Wood butterflies.