Friday 7th. October 2011

First workday of the season up on the Common yesterday , and after the long lay off , needless to say it didn't come easy . The only thing of interest found , was this caterpillar , spotted by one of the

other volunteers , and then asked me what species it was . As luck would have it , after finding the

adult moth during the Summer and identifying it as a Beautiful Yellow Underwing , I looked up the caterpillar , and have spent some time recently , looking on the Heather , the foodplant of the species , whilst walking on the heathland area , needless to say without success .  Tony , who found the caterpillar was just phoning his wife to get a lift home , when he happened to spot it , well camouflaged on the young Heather shoots .
This morning , with the temperature half of what it was last week , I thought I would give Knole Park one last go for the Fallow Deer rut . As I arrived in the area before the gates had opened , I had a very quick look in at Sevenoaks Reserve . Just two cars in the car park didn't bode well , and indeed the lakes were very quiet . That all changed when several skeins of Greylag Geese , a conservative estimate of 200/250 , flew in noisily en mass , and landed in front of Tyler Hide . They would have made a good shot had I been out in the open , but with the canopy still pretty full , it wasn't possible .

The only other interest found was a female Grey Wagtail , which landed in front of Willow Hide ,

and an up close pair of Gadwall from the same spot .
Arriving at Knole Park , not a sinle deer was seen on the way to the car park , and as I rounded the high ground , no sign or sound of any bucks . I did a round of the wooded area around and only sighted a small group of does , no more than 12 in number . Heading back up to the high ground , I met another couple of people with cameras , like me , hoping to witness the rut . One had walked in from the far end of the estate , and hadn't seen a single animal en route . I headed back to the small

valley between the car park and the entrance gate , and found in the distance a group of 10 does , and by the look of them , the majority of the group I had seen earlier . Just one buck was found , but he

wasn't the contender that I had seen on previous visits . The only other interest found was a large

stand of the 'chunky form' of Honey Fungus / Armillaria mellea , and a very inquisitive Jackdaw ,

that kept it's beady eye on me all the way back to the car . On the way out , I had to pass the Fallow

buck , and his attitude seemed to sum up the rut at Knole Park this season .