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Ashes limestone quarry at Stanhope in Weardale ceased operations over 80 years ago and has since become a haven for wildlife. The bottom of the quarry is now a lake with a good range of wetland plant species, including mare's tail, reed mace and water mint, and is a breeding site for several dragonfly and damselfly species. The vertical cliff face hosts nesting jackdaws and sometimes its larger cavities ae occupied by less familiar bird species, like this tawny owl that I saw there a couple of weeks ago.
This is Ashes quarry, a former limestone quarry near Stanhope in Weardale that is now a wonderful nature reserve. The quarry floor is partially flooded and is a breeding place for dragonflies and damselflies, but this sheltered western end, which is mostly rough grassland and quarry spoil heaps, is always a good spot to look for butterflies.
It was good to see a small colony of wall browns has become established here. This is a butterfly that needs warmth and shelter, so this sun-trap, with its sun-warmed rock, clearly suits it very well.
Wall browns are very skittish insects, never settling for long in one place. This individual alternated between basking on its pile of rocks and feeding on herb robert flowers blooming amongst the stones.
The convenient supply of floral nectar meant that this one was constantly disturbed by rival males that tried to take over its domain. Wall browns are ferociously territorial, so each one of these incursions resulted in an aerial dogfight, as the butterflies spiralled upwards, so close to me that I could hear their wings clashing, before they separated and fluttered back to their respective territories.
Eventually a female arrived and courtsship began, with the pair walking through the grass and the male tapping the female with his antennae. I think the male is the closer of the two in this picture, with some wing edge damage that might have occurred during one of those bruising dogfights with a rival.
Wall brown colonies tend to be small and don't often persist in the same place for long, but this quarry site is sheltered and warm, with plenty of the caterpillar food plants (grasses), so it might last for a few years.
The warm piles of stones in the quarry are also excellent habitat for sun-basking common darter dragonflies ....
..... chirruping field grasshoppers Chorthippus brunneus
..... and this devil's coach-horse Ocypus olens. This beetle (more pics here) isn't often seen out and about in bright sunlight - it's more often seen in twilight.
We spent a fascinating afternoon recently watching dragonfly behaviour at Ashes quarry at Stanhope in Weardale.
The most numerous dragonflies in the shallow, moss-edged pools there are common darters, Sympetrum striolatum. We watched them on their egg-laying flights, where the male tows the female around, attached by the tip of his abdomen to a point just behind her head.
Coupling up like this is the male's way of defending the female he has inseminated, preventing rival males from mating with her and displacing his sperm.
It's an unwieldy arrangement. At frequent intervals the male lowers his abdomen, forcing the female down to the water surface where she drops fertilised eggs from the tip of her abdomen.
That's an awkward manoeuvre, when the male momentarily hovers in this vertical position.
The males are fiercely defensive of their territory, often perching on a favourite stone or ....
... plant stem, ready to drive off rivals and pursue any passing female.
The second commonest dragonflies at this site are black darters Sympetrum danae. There seemed to be quite a lot of interspecific aggro - we watched several aerial battles between the two species.
These dragonflies land with their wings outstretched but ....
... finally come to rest with them in this swept-forward configuration.
Back in the autumn of 2013 the local hedgerows were laden with berries but now most of those have been taken by members of the thrush family. So last week it was a surprise to find these wall cotoneaster Cotoeneaster horizontalis plants still carrying a spectacular crop of scarlet berries. The shrubs are growing in fissures in the cliff face in the old Ashes Great Limestone quarry at Stanhope in Weardale, in places that would only be accessible to birds. One large flock of waxwings could probably polish this whole crop off in a couple of hours.
Cotoneaster horizontalis is native to western China and was introduced into British gardens in 1879. It was first recorded as a garden escape in 1940. It also grows on the walls of Stanhope castle, which about half a mile from the quarry.
You can download a guide to the history of the quarry and to a circular walk around it by clicking here
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