Whispers in the Ruins
Monday, 5. October 2009, 21:22:45
Rainfall over southern England - soft rain, persistant rain, enough to render the camera worthless for wildlife photography and to turn the attention towards the South Coast's historical human interest. This is, they say, where King Harold was shot through the eye by a Norman archer and the political landscape of England changed forever.
(The inscription, if it is difficult to read, runs the traditional site of the high altar of Battle Abbey, founded to commemorate the victory of Duke William on 14 October 1066. The high altar was placed to mark the spot where King Harold died.)
It is hard for me not to see all English historical dates overlaid with the fate with our now-missing wildlife. That October - 943 years ago, minus nine days - would have been coloured with the howls of the last wolves of south east England. They were here: historical records confirm that, but like the strength of the old English army, they have gone...and an ecologist must read their former struggles in the speed of the deer and the strength of the wild boar, in much the same way as historians look at the sharp hill of that famous battleground and wonder how the Norman army ever forced their way up the slopes to break the English shield wall.
But break it they did, and William the Conqueror was crowned king. He built Battle Abbey in the 11th century to show pentience for the death toll in the invasion.
Today it is partly in ruins; King Henry VIII disbanded it in the 16th century, but it remains highly imposing.
The crypt can only be seen as a depression in the ground.
But other parts of the Abbey are more fully preserved. This is the room where newly-recruited monks would have studied.
William the Conqueror was killed after being thrown from his horse in 1087, but at least he avoided the fate of his namesake William III, who died in 1702 from complications relating to injuries sustained when his horse tripped on a molehill ("the little gentleman in the black velvet waistcoat" as his enemies put it). I didn't see any moles today, but there was one unusual species present:
This is the chicken-of-the-woods, a large fungi!
And my trail cam has spent the last few days looking for wildlife in the woodlands. Here's a very brief clip of a badger and several shots of foxes.
(The inscription, if it is difficult to read, runs the traditional site of the high altar of Battle Abbey, founded to commemorate the victory of Duke William on 14 October 1066. The high altar was placed to mark the spot where King Harold died.)
It is hard for me not to see all English historical dates overlaid with the fate with our now-missing wildlife. That October - 943 years ago, minus nine days - would have been coloured with the howls of the last wolves of south east England. They were here: historical records confirm that, but like the strength of the old English army, they have gone...and an ecologist must read their former struggles in the speed of the deer and the strength of the wild boar, in much the same way as historians look at the sharp hill of that famous battleground and wonder how the Norman army ever forced their way up the slopes to break the English shield wall.
But break it they did, and William the Conqueror was crowned king. He built Battle Abbey in the 11th century to show pentience for the death toll in the invasion.
Today it is partly in ruins; King Henry VIII disbanded it in the 16th century, but it remains highly imposing.
The crypt can only be seen as a depression in the ground.
But other parts of the Abbey are more fully preserved. This is the room where newly-recruited monks would have studied.
William the Conqueror was killed after being thrown from his horse in 1087, but at least he avoided the fate of his namesake William III, who died in 1702 from complications relating to injuries sustained when his horse tripped on a molehill ("the little gentleman in the black velvet waistcoat" as his enemies put it). I didn't see any moles today, but there was one unusual species present:
This is the chicken-of-the-woods, a large fungi!
And my trail cam has spent the last few days looking for wildlife in the woodlands. Here's a very brief clip of a badger and several shots of foxes.
But I don't see animals in proportion to their abundance. Many people conclude that a species is common because they see it often, when in reality it's just bolder or more daylight-active than its wild neighbours. 
and startled myself with the outcome 
I do not have data for the North Downs specifically, so I've had to work with the figures for the whole of England. *Population statistics for wild mammals - Tracking Mammals Partnership; weight data - mean values from Blitz's Mammal Field Guide; Livestock data from various professional online resources
This is a Bechstein's bat, one of Britain's rarest mammals:
but I did at least see some tracks today 
I have many photos of roe deer of course, but I thought it would be more interesting to post these pictures of dubious quality from my East Anglian days. This is a somewhat uncommon view of genuinely wild red deer in eastern England:
But I think it's worth noting that none of our wild mammals compare in biomass to the number of livestock in Britain. I've excluded their populations and weights from the above figures, because they'd just knock everything (...except rabbits) off the page.
WIDGETIZE