It is that time of the year again and love them or hate them SE23's Stag Beetles are out and about.

They are a protected species and we don't have many of those in Lewisham. You can log your sighting on the following conservation website which also provides information and photos:

http://www.greatstaghunt.org/

Saw one on Waldram Park Road while dog walking
Used to hate them, now they facinate me

Stag Beatles are wicked! where is the best place to find them? My Mum won a campaign against building over a massive plot of land opposite our house in Gomshall thanks to the mighty stag beetle, we had swarms of them flapping about.

Just added 2 that I saw on Waldram Park Road on Saturday night.

These are the first I have ever seen in Forest Hill despite being on the lookout before.

We see them every year around this time flying around our house... They're absolutely brilliant to watch - a miracle they can get off the ground really!

Now we leave old logs lying around to rot, which apparently they lay their eggs in..

Here is a picture of a couple of males that I saw fighting last night about 10pm. Most of my sightings in SE23 have been after 9pm on warm dry days in early June.

I have a question and hope someone can answer it, please?
Is it ONLY the (proper) Stag Beetles that they want logged, or also the lesser stag beetles?

I think it is only the Stag Beetle, but want to make sure.
Thanks in advance, for a reply.

Sue

Yes, I think that they only want sightings of the (proper) Stag Beetle.

I can't work out to attach photos to this post so I have put three from last night on the Tyson Road site:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tysonroad/

I saw a dead one in our communal garden....does that count? j/k

Thankyou Woody - yes I thought so too but wanted to be sure as I saw a little "lesser" guy (I now realise - through photos - I thought he was a young Stag Beetle, initially) in the alleyway (? "Summer Path" or something?) between Derby Hill Crescent and London Road (opposite Sainsburys)
He was very small and seemed to, either be "playing dead" or indeed was not well, as, with a gentle nudge from a leaf (by my son) he would not move on (we were trying to get him off of the main path - where he would have definitely got trodden on - to the side, by flicking him across, off the main path, with a leaf)
The front end - antennae (?) mainly, moved slightly, but not the rest of him.

Anyway ................................. keeping eyes open, always, for the "proper" Stag Beetle



Thanks again

Sue