We took a different path through the woods today, along the public footpath on the Western edge. There are rather fewer opportunities for insects, but it's still an interesting area. There were a few bees on the bramble (Rubus sp.) flowers, but the patches were fairly shaded.
The footpath runs within the edge of the current wood, but on the outside of the original wood-bank with a field currently being cropped with barley to the West, with a generous headland. This photo is taken from part way along the path, and I have just walked up along the edge of the wood on the left hand side. The woodland in the distance at the back of the field and to the right is Fox Wood, also within the Dene Park FC Open Access complex, but I think very few people actually venture into it.
As the path swings around the old hunting lodge, it joins the driveway track, and here there is woodland on both sides. The trees here include horse-chestnut and purple beech, with a fair amount of laurel and rhododendron understorey, and I assume this planting reflects the presence of the house, or perhaps the old hunting lodge. The horse-chestnut was already starting to suffer from the leaf-miner Cameraria ohridella:
In the mix there are some apparently young hornbeam, and on a few of the leaves there were signs of what looked like Aceria tenella, a mite gall found in the axils of the leaves mainly along the midrib, smooth bumps on the upperside, hairy entrances on the underside. This is the view from above:
The driveway swings off to the West and out of the wood towards the Shipbourne Road. At the wood entrance the Dogwood Cornus sanguinea and the Privet Ligustrum vulgare were in flower, but again there were very few insects to be seen.
To the North of the drive the field to the West is growing grass rather than barley. This field and the others around the wood complex are probably fairly good for wildlife such as moths and butterflies specialising on grass as larval food plants. This could possibly include the Large Skipper seen later within the wood, on the Eastern side, nectaring off bramble.
Turning back into the wood the rides through the wood are generally overgrown and shady. They are also very muddy under foot at the moment with the amount of rain the SouthEast has had since the start of May, with unidentified small flies skimming over the surface of the puddles!
Just by the Parish boundary stone, the Medway Valley Countryside Partnership (MVCP) have coppiced one small area to the side of the path - hopefully with more to come!
This is a ladybird larva, possibly the seven spot, Adelia septempunctata:
but this I think is the larva of the harlequin ladybird, Harmonia axyridis:
The footpath runs within the edge of the current wood, but on the outside of the original wood-bank with a field currently being cropped with barley to the West, with a generous headland. This photo is taken from part way along the path, and I have just walked up along the edge of the wood on the left hand side. The woodland in the distance at the back of the field and to the right is Fox Wood, also within the Dene Park FC Open Access complex, but I think very few people actually venture into it.
As the path swings around the old hunting lodge, it joins the driveway track, and here there is woodland on both sides. The trees here include horse-chestnut and purple beech, with a fair amount of laurel and rhododendron understorey, and I assume this planting reflects the presence of the house, or perhaps the old hunting lodge. The horse-chestnut was already starting to suffer from the leaf-miner Cameraria ohridella:
In the mix there are some apparently young hornbeam, and on a few of the leaves there were signs of what looked like Aceria tenella, a mite gall found in the axils of the leaves mainly along the midrib, smooth bumps on the upperside, hairy entrances on the underside. This is the view from above:
The driveway swings off to the West and out of the wood towards the Shipbourne Road. At the wood entrance the Dogwood Cornus sanguinea and the Privet Ligustrum vulgare were in flower, but again there were very few insects to be seen.
To the North of the drive the field to the West is growing grass rather than barley. This field and the others around the wood complex are probably fairly good for wildlife such as moths and butterflies specialising on grass as larval food plants. This could possibly include the Large Skipper seen later within the wood, on the Eastern side, nectaring off bramble.
Turning back into the wood the rides through the wood are generally overgrown and shady. They are also very muddy under foot at the moment with the amount of rain the SouthEast has had since the start of May, with unidentified small flies skimming over the surface of the puddles!
Just by the Parish boundary stone, the Medway Valley Countryside Partnership (MVCP) have coppiced one small area to the side of the path - hopefully with more to come!
This is a ladybird larva, possibly the seven spot, Adelia septempunctata:
but this I think is the larva of the harlequin ladybird, Harmonia axyridis:
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