Cranford Park news

Although I've had no camera for several weeks I have still been visiting Cranford CP to do the UKBMS butterfly transect

 

Thanks to the lovely 'Bank of Mum' I now have a brand new camera and was itching to try it out at my favourite place today

 

Todays butterfly transect took 2 hours and I counted 73 butterflies of 9 species - the highlight being the tiny Brown Argus that refused to have its photo taken

 

Others seen today were:-

 

Speckled Wood

 

 

Speckled Wood (underwing)

 

Small Heath - this one looking a bit old and tatty

 

and the beautiful Large Skipper

 

Large Skipper face view

 

Its that time of year again when the Ragwort is just coming into flower - Ragwort is the food plant of the larvae of the Cinnabar moth

 

 

This is one of several day flying moths - the caterpillars are nothing like the adult - they are orange and black striped

 

It seems early but some of the bramble flowers are already showing igns of turning into blackberries

 

 

There were lots of hoverflies around - my other passion after butterflies - I am waiting on confirmation on the three below but have named them to the best of my ability

Edit - all three confirmed by Ian Andrews

 

Eupeodes luniger

 

Xanthogramma pedissequum

 

Syrphus species

 

Along with the butterflies and hovers there were plenty of Harlequin ladybirds out and about - below is the larva and adult

 

 

As to be expected at this time of year there were not many birds showing well - the juveniles are staying hidden and close to the parents - and the parents are staying hidden as most of them will be either sitting on second broods or going through moult - but I did find a juvenile Long-tailed Tit

 

 

and managed a badly focused photo of a young Blackcap

 

but the highlight for me was seeing Bullfinches - I found a pair in St Dunstans churchyard a few weeks ago but having no camera meant I couldnt take any photos - when I last saw them last week both the male and female were taking food into an evergreen shrub and then reappearing with faecal sacs (a white sack that contains nestlings pooh) - so I was confident they had chicks in the nest - however today the female flew in with nesting material and both birds were calling - so either the last brood have fledged and the parents are preparing for a second brood or the previous brood perished and the adults are trying again - either way it was nice to see the female today even though trying to photograph her from a distance with the wrong lens made it a bit trying

 

The wildlife pond is looking very lush at the moment

 

 

and has attracted a few little critters - this is a male Banded Demoiselle

 

 

and there were two male Broad-bodied Chasers

There was also a Black and Yellow Longhorn Beetle playing hide and seek amongst the Ox Eye daisies

On my out of the park I found another Yellow and Black Longhorn on the kissing gate by Roseville Road

 

A very enjoyable visit as always - and very very nice to have a camera back in my hands

 

 

 

 

The blog is back

I'm back!  I've had no camera since my last blog post and although I went down the road of getting them (I had three dslr bodies) repaired rather than buy a new one it appears it was not to be 

 

Unlike some bloggers I have to have photos on my blog and taking the photos is part of what I do so I have been at a complete loss

 

Recently I was invited to attend an 'off piste' insect experience at Maple Lodge NR just like last year but I felt I had to decline as I had no camera

 

Emily and Sharon (two of the insect experts at Maple Lodge) between them lent me a camera body and macro lens - which I am eternally grateful for - so my day out for yesterday 10th June went ahead

 

I also need to apologise for my punctuation in this post though as it appears my 'full stop' and 'comma' buttons are stuck !! The keyboard needs a proper clean up

 

But back to yesterday - as I left Hayes to make the journey to Maple Cross it was overcast and a little cool - I did wonder if I would be too cold in my t-shirt and waterproof trousers and welly boots - but as I walked on to the reserve the clouds cleared and the sun appeared

 

We started out in front of the Rotunda hide

The marsh orchids are still in full bloom

 

 

The high-light of the day for me was finding so many Water Ladybirds - this is a first for me although they've been noted on site for some years - so please exscuse the overload of photos

 

Not a bad view when you're down in the reeds

 

Also in abundance were the hundreds of Mint Beetles

 

Plus thousands of damselflies

 

I found a Garden Chafer which played dead until I went to pick it up - when it decided to drop to the ground and disappear

 

There was a Cinnabar moth flitting around the orchids

 

and Martin played hide and seek with some skimmers and dragonflies

 

As to be expected at this time of year there were plenty of exuvia to be found - these are the empty shells left behind when a dragonfly or skimmer or chaser emerges

Another species of ladybird found was this nice fresh 22-spot

 





 

Emily found a newly emerged Darter - this beauty hadnt even dried it's wings out yet

 

and I flushed a female Black-tailed Skimmer

 

Other critters seen today was this Small Magpie moth which displayed it's typical behaviour of flying to the underneath of a leaf

 

and the commonly seen Dock Bug

 

Also as to be expected were the few harlequin ladybird larvae

 

along with plenty of adult 7-spot ladybird

 

There was another species of shieldbug around - the delightfully named Hairy Shieldbug

 

Another first ever for me were the many Ruby-tailed Wasps by the long screen - but it was near on impossible to get an infocus photo

 

This beetle is the Golden-bloomed Grey Longhorn (thanks to Martin for the id)

 

I've never used a lure but Sharon had a couple so we placed them in a couple of strategic places - one of them attracted a beauty within twenty minutes - a stunning Red-belted Clearwing

 

They are only seen betwenn mid June to early August - The adults are occasionally seen flying around apple trees in the afternoon and the he caterpillars can be found feeding underneath the bark of the foodplant from August to the following May, overwintering as larvae

 

The day was over too quickly but I had a wonderful time - it was so nice to have a camera in my hands again and I cannot thank Emily and Sharon enough - big thanks also to Martin for taking the time to escort us all