A day off, some sunshine and me with a little bit of get up
and go to get out and do something made a pleasant change and although I did
not go to Oare as planned I still managed to head off into the local woods and
explore part of the Ranscombe Farm Plant Life Reserve that is quite literally
reached from the top of my road.
In 17 years I think I have only been through the M2 underpass
to the other side a handful of times. In those early years there were still Hawfinch,
Willow and Marsh Tits here and if I had headed up in the summer even the chance
of a Nightjar but I never made the effort and those days are gone for all four
species now. I suspect I was slightly scarred by the traumatic two hours spent
calling for my dog, Jinx who had unusually hared off into the maze of Chestnut coppice
after some invisible scent one snowy winter’s day before reappearing gratefully
at my feet.
And so through the tunnel I went, looking at the once lovely
graffiti mural of butterflies, shieldbugs, moths and birds that is itself now
covered with a myriad of indecipherable tags from the local scrotes who would
not appreciate art and wildlife unless it was rolled up in cigarette paper.
A narrow band of wood and then the bridge over the CTRL with
a Eurostar thundering towards Ashford under my feet before following my nose up
through the coppice with the more stately Sweet Chestnuts and Hornbeams guiding
me from the path sides. I have always
appreciated a good tree and some of those that I encountered were towering veterans
of many centuries gone by. I nodded my respects and veered off the path to lay
hands on the twisting majesty of the most noble of these; the twisting spirals
of the Chestnut with twenty foot of girth and in my head I felt the thrum of
life surging up through it. I would pat
it and wish it well and amble on to the next.
Single leaves hung and spun on silken threads and seem to have been placed by spiders in just the right spot to catch both the breeze and sunshine like some giant natural mobile designed to stop all the leaves reaching the ground and forestalling autumn to become winter.
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| Spinning leaf |
Both species seem to be almost indestructible with many
fallen trees now creating a mini copse of their own with shoots springing from
their prostrate trunks now trees in their own rights. However, the towering
skeletal stag heads of those that have succumbed to old age still cut a fine shape
against the blue sky.
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| A petrified Ivory Billed Woodpecker well out of its normal range... |
The crop of fruit of both was immense with bunches of
Hornbeam seeds and prickly Chestnut cases weighing down the branches and there
will be a bumper harvest for finches, Squirrels and Deer.
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| Sweet Chestnut |
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| Hornbeam |
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| Hornbeam |
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| Sweet Chestnut |
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| oh and Apples too |
The woods themselves were disturbingly devoid of bird life.
I only found one tit flock with Blue, Great and Long-tails but then only about
ten birds; I heard three Goldcrests and a distant Nuthatch. It should have been
alive with sound.
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| Bracken |
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| Bramble on the turn |
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| A big clump of highly scented Wild Marjoram gone to seed |
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| Honeysuckle and Ivy |
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| A composite but interesting leaves... |
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| ...over to you Enid! |
Insects on the other hand proliferated with Common Darters
and Migrant Hawkers in amazing numbers hunting in the sunny glades and rides
while Comma, Speckled Wood, Red Admiral, Small White and even a pristine male
Brimstone adding some butterfly colour.
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| Common Darter |
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| Common Darter |
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| Common Darter |
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| Speckled Wood |
Orb Weavers had webs strung over suitable gaps with the hope
of catching one of the lazy Blue Bottles and Flesh Flies that were bumbling
around and Field Grasshoppers and Dark Bush Crickets serenaded from the
margins. I even found Myathropa florea and Eristalis tenax looking for rot holes in
a Hornbeam which was good to see. Water
must be at a premium as the lack of any notable rain persists.
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| Araneus diadematus |
I crossed into the Cobham Estate and soon found myself in front
of the imposing edifice of the mausoleum of the Darnley family.
It sits on the brow of the hill and would have once had a commanding view over
their estate.
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| Just how there is enough dust for this Dog Rose to thrive so well beats me |
I circled it before retracing my steps back towards the main
woodland but became distracted, as one does, by lots of insect activity around
some slightly crusty cowpats.
And here I spent a content and not too odiferous half hour
trying to get pictures of several elongated female Soldierflies that kept coming
in to lay eggs down the side where the pat met the ground. They were nicely shiny green and had a
reddish patch on the skinny abdomen which has helped identify them as Twin Spot
Centurions - Sargus bipunctatus. I caught
a male at RSPB Rainham Marshes the other day so it was nice to have an idea
where to go with it!
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| Twin Spot
Centurion - Sargus bipunctatus |
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| Twin Spot
Centurion - Sargus bipunctatus |
Several Lucilia
and Sarcs were attending the pat and
I found two Neomyia waiting in the
wings which allowed some shots and the confirmation of N cornicina with one pair of presutural acrostichals and three
pairs of postsutural dorsocentral bristles.
Who would have thought I would even look a few years ago? A strange hoverfly was also floating around and I eventually got a good look at them. I had the name cuprea in my head in that weird way that my brain stores information and my Ball and Morris added Ferdinandea cuprea to my hoverfly list when I got home.
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Sarcophaga sp - a Flesh Fly
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| Neomyia cornicina |
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| Ferdinandea cuprea |
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| Ferdinandea cuprea |
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| Ferdinandea cuprea |
A big fat Mesembrina meridiana
came to join in the fun and huge Hornet made a passing effort at a snack about
a foot in front of my face.
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| Mesembrina meridiana |
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| Not sure about this one - did not feel like a normal Sarc |
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| Mellinus wasp sp probably M arvensis |
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| Mellinus wasp sp probably M arvensis |
My loop took me off to the east through younger coppice and the warm gravelly path side
was host to more crickets, a large Robber Fly species and Eupeodes luniger and what I believe to be Cheilosia scutellata (with the big nose) both on some remaining Wild
Carrot that was flowering. Young Lizards darted away from me and the sandy
banks were full of bee holes from earlier months. More Speckled Woods danced and a Meadow brown
was a late surprise.
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| possibly Cheilosia scutellata |
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| possibly Cheilosia scutellata |
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| possibly Cheilosia scutellata |
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| possibly Cheilosia scutellata |
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| Speckled Wood |
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| Meadow Brown |
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| Field Mushrooms I think |
I startled a big dark Fallow Deer that crashed off into the
wood and quite literally knocked over a wood pile in the process before
stopping for a glance back at the alien on its patch before I emerged to a huge
field that ran down towards the Cuxton Road entrance to the site and a fine
view across the Medway Valley towards Borstal and Wouldham. A large flock of
Wood and Feral Pigeons were feeding in the harvested field but there were no
small birds of any sort once again.
There
were even more Hawkers and Darters on this stretch and flocks of the former
were marauding from ground level to 30 feet up as I veered back around to the
west on what I hoped was my circular route back to the bridge, tunnel and my
car.
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| Common Darter |
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| Common Darter |
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| Common Darter |
My internal sat nav has always been pretty good but it is
always pleasing to end up where you hope to after a walk into the unknown.
