Grove Hill is a small limestone escarpment not far from Alcester. You can walk around the foot of the escarpment on a fairly flat path or make the short but very steep ascent through woodland to the top.
There are a couple of ponds and the first one I came across was teeming with Damselflies. They were mainly these Large Red Damselfly but there were also a smaller number of blue ones
Large Red Damselfly - Pyrrhosoma nymphula
A male and a female :-)
Broad Bodied Chaser - Libellula depressa
Not a great picture but these guys are very fast and when they do stop they don't come close and if you try to get closer they are easily spooked. There were about 3 of these and I didn't notice any other dragonflies.
View from base of Grove Hill looking towards Oversley Wood
Path along thebase of Grove Hill
Hoverfly - Cheilosia variabilis ?
Click Beetle - Athous haemorrhoidalis
Click beetles named after the click they make when they try to right themselves if they end up on their backs.
The second pond was very low on water and it looked like there had been an attempt to refill it with a hose. Interestingly there were still a load of tadpoles.
What is this?
I saw this on two separate wild rose bushes. A bright orange powdery looking growth. I am guessing that it is some kind of a gall and there is a gall that appears on Wild Rose , Diplolepis rosae . This is more moss like but maybe what I saw was the remains of last years galls?
