Tag Archives: Black Country

The Black Country Global Geopark

On the 14th December, attendees enjoyed a superb talk organised by the Friends of Rowley Hills entitled ‘The Black Country UNESCO Global Geopark Project – Paving the way to the heritage future of the Black Country‘. Presented by Graham Worton, Keeper of Geology at Dudley Museum & Art Gallery, this talk described the very exciting plans to get the Black Country globally recognised for its unique geological, industrial and cultural heritage.

The Black Country during the Industrial Revolution

When people think of the Black Country, often the image that first springs to mind is a concrete jungle of seemingly endless roads and urban development, far from other sites in the UNESCO Geoparks Network such as the North West Highlands in Scotland, or the English Riviera on the south Devon Coast. However dig a little deeper and the Black Country reveals itself to be a treasure trove of geological gems! There is an incredible variety of different types of rocks crammed into this small area, including important deposits of limestone, ironstone, fireclay and coal, which helped to drive the Industrial Revolution. This brought about experimentation and innovation, leading to many technological advances and geological discoveries. Inventions such as the Newcomen Engine and the Watt Beam Engine emerged, and a diverse range of rare fossils were found and catalogued, including 63 species found nowhere else in the world! Today, you can see and learn about the Black Country’s amazing geology for yourself at many locations, including Dudley Museum and Art Gallery, Wren’s Nest National Nature Reserve, Barr Beacon Local Nature Reserve, Saltwells Local Nature Reserve, Barrow Hill and Tansey Green, Moorcroft Wood Local Nature Reserve, Cotwall End Valley and Sedgley Beacon and Beacon Hill Quarries.

A fossil trilobite known as Calymene blumenbachii, a.k.a. the Dudley bug!

This is just a small range of the Black Country’s geosites though; the team leading the Global Geopark bid have identified many more, which can be viewed on this map. These of course include the Rowley Hills, which are important due to their exposures of dolerite, a rock which solidified from molten magma within the Earth’s crust. Due to its hardness, this rock was resistant to erosion when the Black Country area was glaciated; surrounding softer rocks were removed to leave the Rowley Hills standing tall above the rest of the landscape.

The Black Country Geopark team have put together an application dossier which has now been submitted to UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). The aim of the bid is to get the Black Country designated by UNESCO as a Global Geopark, which will substantially raise the area’s profile and bring many benefits via increased tourism, including improved economic performance, wellbeing of residents, quality of environment and inward investment potential. You can read the full application dossier here: http://www.blackcountrygeopark.org.uk/sites-to-see/ The Friends of Rowley Hills wish the team every success with the Black Country Global Geopark bid!

Fungal fiesta!

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There are some amazing fungi out on the Rowley Hills at the moment! These photos were taken by Mike Poulton last week. We’re not great on fungi identification so if you know what any of these are, please let us know. And if you’ve seen any interesting fungi, plants or other wildlife on the Rowley Hills recently, get in touch!

: This one is not a fungus, it’s actually a slime mould called ‘Dog’s Vomit Slime Mould’ (Mucilago crustacea) which ‘climbs’ along grass stems and eventually hardens into a solid mass (image © Mike Poulton)

: Image © Mike Poulton

: Image © Mike Poulton

: Image © Mike Poulton

: Image © Mike Poulton

: Image © Mike Poulton

: Image © Mike Poulton

: Image © Mike Poulton

: Image © Mike Poulton

: Image © Mike Poulton

: Image © Mike Poulton

: Image © Mike Poulton

: Image © Mike Poulton

Friends of Rowley Hills awarded £10,000 from the Big Lottery Fund!

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Fantastic news! We are very happy to be able to announce that we’ve been successful in securing a £10,000 Awards for All grant from the Big Lottery Fund. These grants fund a wide range of community projects aimed at developing skills, improving health, revitalising the local environment and enabling people to become more active citizens. Our application was overseen by the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham & the Black Country with whom we work closely; our thanks to them for their great assistance in helping us obtain this funding.

The Wildlife Trust will also be helping to deliver the majority of the activities paid for by the funding, over the next 12 months. Although yet to be finalised, the money is likely to be spent on activities such as guided walks and other events, training for our members so that we can deliver more future events, and supplies necessary for the upkeep of the Rowley Hills.

New waymarker posts on Portway Hill

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Great news – six waymarker posts have now been erected in various places across Portway Hill pointing out the official Public Rights of Way linking Portway with Bury Hill Park and the Wolverhampton Road. We are grateful to Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council and the Local Access Forum for making this possible.

FORH committee member Bob Duncan alongside one of the newly installed waymarker posts.

Friends of Rowley Hills committee member Bob Duncan alongside one of the newly installed waymarker posts.

Rowley Hills butterflies in a new report and book

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The large expanse of open, uninterrupted grassland on the Rowley Hills situated between Portway Hill and the Birmingham New Road, known as Portway Hill Open Space, is currently one of the best sites in the West Midlands for Marbled White and Small Heath butterflies. Mike Poulton has been studying populations of these two butterfly species for the past five years and has produced a short report summarising his findings so far. The overall picture is a mixed one, with Marbled Whites thriving but Small Heaths declining. Click here to read the full report.

Marbled White butterfly (Melanargia galanthea) (image © Mike Poulton)

Small Heath butterfly (Coenonympha pamphilus) (image © Jane Tavener)

In related news, Pisces Publications have a pre-publication offer on for ‘Butterflies of the West Midlands’. This new book, the first ever on the butterflies of the West Midlands, includes a butterfly walk on Portway Hill; it will be launched in Spring 2016 and can be ordered from http://www.naturebureau.co.uk/bookshop/butterflies-west-mids-detail.

Butterflies of the West Midlands book.

Wildlife round-up – October 2015

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Although summer is over and autumn is now well and truly with us, there are still plenty of fascinating flora and fauna to be seen in the Rowley Hills. Here’s a round-up of recent sightings; don’t forget, if you’ve seen something interesting, let us know!

Bird migration is continuing apace, and taking on an autumnal flavour, with the first Redwings of the season being spotted. This member of the thrush family breeds in northern Europe and migrates south in autumn, escaping the cold weather to spend the winter in the UK and other central and southern European countries. Other migrating species seen recently include Meadow and Tree Pipits, White and Yellow Wagtails, House Martin, Chaffinch, Siskin, Redpoll, Swallow, Spotted Flycatcher, Chiffchaff, Golden Plover and Cormorant. Many thanks as always to Ian Whitehouse for keeping us up to date with his Rowley Hills sightings!

Spotted Flycatcher (image © Ian Whitehouse)

Early morning on the Rowley Hills, a great time for vismigging (observing visible migration of birds) (image © Ian Whitehouse).

We’ve had more good news following Sandwell Council’s decision to delay cutting the grass on Bury Hill in response to our request. Not only has this allowed the Harebells there to finish flowering – enabling us to collect seed from them to sow elsewhere in the Rowley Hills – another scarce wildflower in Birmingham and the Black Country has been discovered in the same area which would probably never have come to light had the grass been cut as normal. The flower is Trailing Tormentil (Potentilla anglica); it is very difficult to identify as it hybridises with two other members of the Tormentil family, Creeping Cinquefoil (P. reptans) and Common Tormentil (P. erecta). The two hybrids and Trailing Tormentil all look very similar, having flowers with both 4 and 5 petals; however 2 experts have verified that it is Trailing Tormentil. The diagnostic feature confirming this is fully fertile flowers – hybrids are not fertile.

Trailing Tormentil (Potentilla anglica) (image © Mike Poulton)

Elsewhere on the hills Mike Poulton photographed a Broom Moth caterpillar feeding on Red Bartsia, and another new botanical record for the Wildlife Trust’s Portway Hill site was a large patch of Sneezewort, so named because its pungent smell supposedly causes sneezing.

Broom Moth caterpillar (Ceramica pisi) (image © Mike Poulton)

Sneezewort (Achillea ptarmica) (image © Mike Poulton)

Mike and Doug also found an enormous spider whilst working on the Wildlife Trust’s site, which turned out to be a Four Spotted Orb Weaver. This spider holds the record for the heaviest spider in Britain!

Four Spotted Orb Weaver (Araneus quadratus) (image © Mike Poulton)

It’s turning out to be a great fungi season too. These two species were photographed last week; Blackening Waxcap was near the Wildlife Trust’s Portway Hill site and Verdigris Agaric was on Massey’s Bank.

Blackening Waxcap (Hygrocybe nigrescens) (image © Mike Poulton)

Verdigris Agaric (Stropharia aeruginosa) (image © Mike Poulton)

Recent wildlife sightings

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We’ve had some great wildlife sightings in and around the Rowley Hills recently! If you’ve spotted anything interesting, please do let us know.

At this time of year, the Hills host a continuous flow of migrating birds, which stop off briefly to rest and refuel before continuing their journey south. Recent sightings include Tree Pipit, Redstart, Linnet, Grey, Yellow and Pied Wagtails, Siskin, House Martin, Garden Warbler, Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat, Swift, Spotted Flycatcher, Sedge Warbler, Blackcap, Swallow, Willow Warbler, Mistle Thrush, Raven, Peregrine, Kestrel, Buzzard and Sparrowhawk. Many thanks to Ian Whitehouse who regularly tweets his Rowley Hills sightings and photos!

Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus) (image © Ian Whitehouse)

Tree Pipit (Anthus trivialis) (image © Ian Whitehouse)

Local resident Andrew Cook also sent us these brilliants photos of a male Kestrel sitting on his garden fence. The Rowley Hills are a great spot for Kestrels as the grassland provides the perfect habitat for voles and mice, which are the Kestrel’s preferred prey. It looks as though this Kestrel may be resting after having recently eaten, as there is a small amount of blood on his beak and talons.

Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) (image © Andrew Cook)

Another nice local record came from Lukas Large, who recorded this video of a Humming-bird Hawk-moth feeding on nectar from Red Valerian in his garden. As the name suggests, this moth resembles a Hummingbird in flight as it hovers and darts between flowers, its wings humming; Red Valerian is one of its favourite food plants. Humming-bird Hawk-moths migrate to the UK in summer from southern Europe and north Africa.

Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia) (image © Doug Barber)

And finally, some more great news about the Harebells growing on the hillside above Bury Hill Park. Because Sandwell Council very kindly agreed to delay mowing the grass here in order to help conserve these wildflowers, we have been able to collect a large amount of seed from them. For most of the Harebells on that site it is probably the first time they will have produced seed in living memory as by now the whole area would normally have been cut. The seed capsules will now be left to dry out and the resulting seeds sown in suitable locations elsewhere on the Rowley Hills to help to conserve a scarce Birmingham and Black Country plant. This is great news for conservation and biodiversity in the Rowley Hills and we are very grateful to Sandwell Council for their cooperation with our request to put the mowing in this area on hold.

Friends of Rowley Hills in Halesowen News

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We’ve had some more coverage of our concerns about the proposed redevelopment of Edwin Richards Quarry, this time in Halesowen News. Although we did not give any direct statements to the newspaper (all the quotes attributed to us are lifted directly from our objection letter) the article gives a good outline of our position regarding the proposals. We’ve never referred to ourselves as a ‘pressure group’ though – we like to think we’re a bit friendlier than that!

Click here to read the full article.

Report from SandNats walk

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SandNats exploring the Rowley Hills (image © Mike Poulton)

On Saturday SandNats (Sandwell Valley Naturalists’ Club) held a guided walk on the Rowley Hills, concentrating on wildflowers and invertebrates. The weather was perfect – warm and sunny – giving optimum conditions for spotting insects, and the walk was a great success, with several rare insect species being recorded.

The group walked a circuit around the old Blue Rock Quarry. Although the height of the flowering season has now passed for many plants, there were still quite a few in flower including Burnet-saxifrage (Pimpinella saxifraga), Hare’s-foot Clover (Trifolium arvense), Red Bartsia (Odontites verna), Lucerne (Medicago sativa) and others. There were plenty of butterflies around, including a few Marbled Whites (Melanargia galathea), by now looking somewhat worn. As well as these we saw Large, Small and Essex Skippers, Large and Small Whites, Small Copper, Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown, Common Blue, Comma and Red Admiral.

Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus) (image © Jane Tavener)

Large Skipper (Ochlodes sylvanus) on Lucerne (Medicago sativa) (image © Jane Tavener)

Robin's Pincushion gall produced by the wasp Diplolepis rosae (image © Jane Tavener)

There was a noticeable passage of migrating Swifts heading south at one point, and quite a few House Martins feeding high overhead. We did particularly well for raptors, seeing Buzzard, Kestrel, Peregrine and Sparrowhawk. A pair of Ravens also flew overhead while we were looking around the Wildlife Trust’s viewpoint near the dolerite crags. Small songbirds were relatively quiet as expected for the time of year but we did see quite a few Goldfinches.

Six-belted Clearwing (Bembecia ichneumoniformis) (image © Jane Tavener)

The highlight of the day was the discovery of a Six-belted Clearwing moth (Bembecia ichneumoniformis) on the Wildlife Trust’s Portway Hill reserve. This unusual moth mimics hoverfly species with its black and yellow stripes and clear wings, and is patchily distributed throughout parts of the southern half of Britain. It’s a great find for the Rowley Hills and also shows that the management the Wildlife Trust are carrying out on their land is contributing positively to biodiversity.

Roesel's Bush-cricket (Metrioptera roeselii) (image © Jane Tavener)

Another highlight was a Roesel’s Bush-cricket (Metrioptera roeselii), a medium-sized cricket which has been expanding its range north over the past few decades.

After a few hours of enjoyable wandering, sharing of knowledge and great wildlife sightings, it was time to head back home for a late lunch!

The Rowley Hills 8th August 2015 (image © Jane Tavener)

Friends of Rowley Hills on BBC WM

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Our Vice Chair Mike Poulton recorded an interview which was broadcast on BBC WM this morning about our concerns regarding the proposed redevelopment of Edwin Richards Quarry. You can listen again on the iPlayer for the next 30 days – the main interview is 23 minutes 25 seconds in, and there is a recap and response from Sandwell Council 1 hour and 51 minutes in. Our concerns also get a mention in the news headlines at intervals throughout the programme.