A walk through the quarry in glorious June sunshine was enriched by the sight of a Bishop’s Mitre shieldbug stumbling and clambering through the rabbit-cropped turf. This species of shieldbug is one of the easiest to identify from its distinctive shape, yet it has proved elusive in the Country Park until now.

The visit was also fortunate to find a couple of flightless wasps that hunt prey by jumping onto them. This species of wasp Dinocarsis hemiptera was found last year in the rush growing in the seasonal pond of the quarry, but this visit found them in Sheep’s Sorrel growing in the area so well cleared by volunteers in former times.