In the footsteps of The Beatles...

I have been writing this blog for, what is it? 3 years roughly and yet, I don't think I have really featured mammals yet. Well time to put that right because this update is all about a recent trip to Sevenoaks in Kent. In particular, to Knole Park and that should be a good clue to anyone who knows the National Trust property as to what I went in search of...

To avoid the traffic on the A21 and ensure I was there in good time, I left early...far too early!

Eventually, after I guess I'd walked around half a mile into the park, the light improved enough to be able to appreciate the fantastic amount of mature and ancient trees in their autumn colours...

By now I suppose it must have been about 8.30am and I got my first glimpse of what I had come to see...

Yes, the medieval herd of fallow deer were my target for the day and they were just starting to come into the light from the safety of the trees. As the light and temperature improved, more and more where visible.

This was in an area of the park known as 'The Gallops' and in this particular site the deer act as they would in the wild and you need to either be in a hide or stalk them from a distance to get photographs. Closer to the house, I understand they are quite tame and unafraid of humans.

The second one I spotted, this one was racing from one side of the gallop to the woods on the opposite side, was this very pale one and I wondered if this is what is referred to as 'white'. 

Then, I suppose about half an hour later, my first sighting of the classic looking fallow deer with those fabulous spots...

 CLICK ANY PHOTO FOR LARGE VIEW

Knole is vast...1,000 acres of wood and parkland and there are still signs everywhere of the affects of the great storm of 1987 when it lost around 70% of it's tree population.

There are between 400-600 fallow currently at Knole with a small number of Sika.

The fallow themselves are direct descendants of the 15th century herd....

I noticed that all the deer I was seeing were either female or young males, with no sightings in this area of the large stags. I loved wandering around this park so much though that I will surely return and have another day photographing those.

Although I don't like the idea of having to do so, the deer do need culling to control numbers.

This is a snap taken on my phone of the area called 'The Gallops'...

A few more shots from the day...

And so that was my morning spent at Knole Park In Sevenoaks West Kent with the fallow deer. Thoroughly enjoyable and I have no doubt I shall return soon. Something tells me that once the snow arrives, as it surely will, that it will provide another photo opportunity.

Until then next time then, I'll leave you with The Beatles in Knole Park 1967 filming for Strawberry Fields...

A seven-eyed spider...

November 21st as I write and would you believe it, bramble flowers just starting to appear in the old orchard close to my house...

Autumn seems to be only just getting into full-swing here with many trees remaining quite green until the last few days when there does now seem to be a real change underway, even though I am not     expecting a spectacular show, as some have already lost their leaves.This beech was looking nice though...

Click any image for a larger view

Of course as the year moves on, birds are finding it increasingly hard to find food and I've seen a few blue-tits feeding on the last of the apples in the old orchard...

We've had our fair share of rain in the last couple of weeks and now everywhere is saturated...

 There's always a winner though, the slugs and snails are the beneficiaries this time and if bugs are elusive, then you don't need to be Holmes to seek out the latter...

I can't believe it has taken until well into November to find my first drinker moth larva. I usually see these in reasonable numbers but this is my first of the year and it's only a youngster too...

Here's another moth caterpillar, this time one I would expect to see later in the year...

Assuming my identity is correct-I think this is Angle shades (Phlogophora meticulosa.) Larvae that hatch in the autumn overwinter as caterpillars and then pupate in the soil in spring to produce the first generation of adults the same year.

The colder conditions don't seem to bother the spiders as much as other invertebrates and I was surprised by one I found a few days back that seemed to have some kind of, now how did my friend describe it? "Genetic mutation" in that it appeared to have a  missing eye...

Well that's about it for this little update, more very soon and I'll leave you with another photograph of 7-spot ladybirds that I took just yesterday.

Until the next time then...

Bishop's mitres and grey daggers....

Hard to believe it is 6th November already, well as I write it is, by the time you read this it'll have moved on again-time does that ya know. Having survived storm 'St Jude' and a general fall in temperature, I am still managing to find insects and bugs that are also surviving the elements...

This lovely bishop's mitre shieldbug (Aelia acuminata) was a nice late find. I know these can be found as adults all year round but I rarely see them in the summer months, let alone this late in the year. I think in all my years of finding and recording bugs, I have only ever seen 3 or 4.

The common green shieldbug is as its name suggests, common enough but they do change colour for the winter as this one was already starting to do...

Whilst looking for leafhoppers a couple of days ago, I stopped at a hazel tree and spied this great looking caterpillar...

Click any image for a larger view

It's the larva of the grey dagger moth. Easy to identify from the other dagger moths by that large 'hump' behind its head.

I also came across another (or maybe the same?) hirsute caterpillar of what I think is probably a garden tiger moth?

You may have noticed by the way that I have not been using caps for the names of these insects? To be truthful, I am never quite sure if using a capital letter at all times is correct or not? However, I decided to do a little research and this seems to be the definitive answer...'Lower-case initial letters are used for each part of the common (vernacular) names of species, genera, families and all other taxonomic levels'...so there!

I think this darker example may well be the same species but it's so difficult to be certain.

This year does seem to have been a good one for another moth larva; either that or I am becoming expert at finding them. I'm talking now about the fox moth...

Erm...take a look at this cute millipede picture...

I'm guessing that, like me, you know little about these arthropods? Even perhaps not understanding the difference between millipedes and centipedes? 
Well here are a few facts about these fascinating (oh, yes they are) creatures that might help...

When they hatch, millipedes have just 3 pairs of legs. They go through something called anamorphic development. Each time a millipede moults, it will add more body segments and legs. By the time they become adults, they will have dozens of segments and hundreds of legs-never 1,000 though!

The difference between millipedes and centipedes is that centipedes have just one pair of legs per body segment, whereas millipedes have three. Although in millipedes, section one has no legs at all and 2 through 4 varies depending on species.
Apparently, although I have never tried this, you can sex a millipede by examining the seventh segment, as males will have small stumps replacing legs, or no legs at all.

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To paraphrase Monty Python's Flying Circus...that dates me right? Anyhow, anyone familiar with the classic British T.V. show will know this phrase...."And now for something completely different..."

I am familiar with the fungus that affects flies and then causes them somehow to climb to the highest available point to die but I have never seen an earwig similarly affected before. I wonder if it is exactly the same fungi?

You have to just marvel at nature in all its guises and and diversities, here's yet another strange invertebrate...

This is the green lacewing larva (Neuroptera) which feeds on aphids, greenfly and other small insects and then frequently puts their remains on to its own back as camouflage to allow it to creep up on other victims.

Well I really should be attending to other things and I'm sure you have demands on your time other than reading these blog entries, and so I shall refrain from lengthening this update any further, other than to leave you with a photo of terrier Herbie patiently sitting beside our local pond waiting for me to finish taking yet more photographs...

Until the next time...