A Dungtastic Day

After a few days of lousy weather Fizz and I woke up this morning to blue skies. We quickly decided it was a good day to visit the woods and it was.

We were heading into the forest but we wanted to just rush past the first plantation and get to the native woodland today. So heads down off we went until we saw a Beech tree, then we took our blinkers off and slowed the pace.

I had intended to go much deeper into the wood but just at this point a beautiful Fallow stag stepped out onto the path in front of us.

There was no chance of a photograph it happened very quickly but he was close and we had a good look at him. He took off along a track that led into the forest so we followed him, slowly and quietly.

Unfortunately we never saw him again and this is not going to be a post about a majestic stag it is very quickly going to turn into a post about a dung beetle.

We  hadn’t gone very far along this path when I noticed a little beetle and stopped to photograph him.

This is a Dor Beetle, Geotrupes stercorarius. It is a dung beetle and it is a Scarab.

Being a Scarab means that it has worshippers which makes it slightly more important than a WordPress Blogger because they only have followers.

I am fond of this beetle I used to see lots of them in my wood where they would collect Rabbit pellets. It is supposed to favour cow pats but I didn’t used to have any cows.

Just a few steps down the path I found another one.

Good aren’t they? A pretty little beetle with a penchant for pooh.

I started to realise they were everywhere on this track, dozens of them.

Some had even been trodden on, someone had walked this path before me. There were so many of them and I have never seen anything like this. I am guessing that the sudden nice weather had something to do with it.

You would say if I was boring you, wouldn’t you?

Let’s get off this path so that we don’t tread on any beetles. Lets play a game. I will show you photographs of a tree and you see how many pictures it takes before you recognise it.

“Beech”

I haven’t started yet. Okay , bark first.

Fruit.

Bud and leaf.

Have you got it yet? Well don’t worry you are only a Dog. It is a Beech tree. Isn’t it beautiful?

“I eat chicken and play ball. Have you got it yet?”

100% Right on. I am with you there. Eat chicken, play ball and explore nature, yeah? Come on, we might find some more beetles.

Wow! We got out on the track and there were beetles everywhere.

Don’t eat them, Stupid! You don’t know where they have been.

It was around about now that we found out exactly where they had been. There are no Cows but we do get quite a lot of Horse traffic in the Forest. Fizz regretted scoffing so many.

They eat their own weight in dung every day and help to clean up after us. It sounds impressive but they don’t weigh very much.

That was a wonderful thing. Photographs of a stag would have been okay but to witness Beetlemania first hand, I don’t know if I will ever have the opportunity to see what happened today happen again.

So we walked out of the forest. There is a joke that Fizz and I like to do. It is an old joke but it’s a good one. There is this place where we rest on the way back. she climbs on the stacks and I take the pictures.

We are rebels and there is just no controlling us.

This is the weird thing, as soon as we entered the plantation, no beetles. Turn around and walk twenty steps, hundreds of beetles, a plague of beetles. Back into the plantation, nothing, no life.

These beetles eat dung. The larvae feed on dung and the adults feed on dung.

I am not having a dig at plantations here, I just can’t understand why the type of tree makes a difference.

I know, you like playing ball and eating chicken, I like bugs. It is like we were made for each other.