Kingfisher overload at Cranford Park

When I was last at the park earlier this week there were two very active Kingfishers going up and down the River Crane - but I was distracted by the Ivy Bees so didn't linger to see where the birds were going

 

Today I had a bit more time on my hands so went back to try and get a photograph or two of these beauiful little birds

 

I started off at the Iron Bridge and walked down towards the M4 so the sun was behind me - but it wasnt until I got near to the Stone Bridge that I could both hear and see the birds

 

Definitely two birds I told myself and happily watched them from the Stone Bridge trying to second guess where they were going to land

 

There were certainly favouring the stretch of river between the bridge and the M4 viaduct - I know from previous experience that they often perch on a grate by the viaduct so made my way there and thats when I realised there werent just two Kingfishers but actually FOUR !

 

I've always suspected they nest along the river after the viaduct where the banks are much higher and the woods are much more secluded and it looks as if Im right as all four birds often flew through the viaduct before re-emerging calling to each other

 

None of my photos were very good today - it was incredibly hard trying to photograph the birds without moving and spooking them so lots of pictures were taken through swaying branches or from hiding behind a tree trunk

 

And excuse the complete overload

 

Spot the Kingfisher

 

 

 

 



Overdue visit to Cranford CP

For various reasons I havent been to Cranford Park for a while but with the last few warm days of September here I had to pay a visit

 

There were plenty of birds to see but none that stood still long enough for my camera to focus on - I spotted three Common Buzzards - two Red Kite - two Kingfishers - nice size mixed flock of Long-tailed and Blue Tits - Great Spotted Woodpecker - two Kestrels

 

The insects and critters were much more obliging on this warm autumnal day - first up was this small stunning Hawthorn Shieldbug

 

 

There were a few butterflies about - my last UKBMS transect will be in about two weeks time and that will be it for this year - I will do a blog covering the species seen this season nearer the time

 

Large White

Red Admiral underwing

Peacock

 I saw more Ladybirds today than I did during the heatwave - the majority were 7-spots but there was the odd Harlequin around too

 

7-spot

7-spot

Harleqiun - note the brown legs - a good id feature for these non native bugs

Harlequin larva

Not too many hoverflies around and the only species I could find was feeding on flowering ivy - the Batman hoverfly - Myathropa Florea

 

 

The warm still day meant there were lots of dragonflies around - this is one of the Hawker speices probably a Southern Hawker

 

and there were plenty of Common Darters all over the park

 

The little critter below was only about an inch long - it's one of the Conehead species

 

 

 There were still some Oak galls visible - the tiny pinholes you can see are where the parasitic wasp has burrowed out of the gall after spending the first part of its life inside it as a grub

 

The high-light of my visit though was finding a fourth colony of Ivy Bees - I found my first colony two years ago by the orchard - this fourth colony is much smaller and was by the river

 

 

These attractive bees are a little larger than our common Honey Bees - and with much more brighter yellowy orange and black bands - they were first recorded in the UK in 2001 in Dorset and have since spread pretty much all over Britain - In 2001 the BWARS (Bees Wasps and Ants Recording Scheme) strated monitoring sites where they were spotted and they continue to ask for any sightings to be submitted

 

The flight period for this lovely little bee coincides with when our common ivy comes into flower so they are normally seen early September to late October - it is well worth checking any patch of flowering ivy no matter how big or small it is

 

link to Bwars monitoring scheme

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dock bug day at Cranford CP

Yesterday I was at Cranford CP to complete the weekly UKBMS butterfly transect and it was such a nice day - not too hot and not too cold - that a whole load of other critters were out and about too

 

No less than seven hoverfly species - ids under each photo and confirmed by Roger Morris

 

Myathropa florea

Eristalis arbustorum

 

Sphaerophoria scripta

 

Syrphus sp

Episyrphus balteatus

Dasysyrphus tricinctus

Volucella zonaria

The cooler weather meant there weren't so many butterflies around but I still clocked up nine species as below

 

9 x Large White

1 x Small White

1 x Small Copper

1 x Common Blue

12 x Holly Blue

15 x Speckled Wood

3 x Gatekeeper

1 x Meadow Brown

1 x Small Heath

 

Both Holly Blues and Speckled Woods have two flushes each year which accounts for the double figures these last couple of weeks

 

Several species of butterfly are now looking well past their prime and their wings are getting a bit tatty

 

Holly Blues

very tatty Holly Blue

Holly Blues - the bottom one is laying eggs

Holly Blue

 

tatty Large White

tatty Small Copper

Small Heath

Speckled Wood

 

Meadow Brown

The cooler weather had also bought out some Ladybirds - these are all 7-spots

 

 

Autumn is a good time of the year to spot galls - the photo below I purposely took as a comparison between a normal growing acorn and one that has been parasitised by a tiny wasp called Andricus quercuscalicis

When I uploaded and enlarged my photo (the second one down) I got a little excited that I may have actually got a photo of this tiny little wasp but after posting to a couple of facebook forums it turns out this tiny little critter is in fact Ormyrus nitidulus which is a parasitoid of gall wasps

 

So I got the gall and the parasite of the wasp that made it - bonus

 

Just like most other insects it has been a good year for Darters - my id skills aren't great on these smaller dragonflies so I'm tentatively identifying this one as a Ruddy Darter

 

 

I think the highlight of my day though was seeing the huge amounts of Dock Bugs basking during the sunny spells - I know every August I rave on about these species of bug but they do fascinate me and make such good photographic subjects

 

Dock Bug is their common name - they are called Coreus marginatus and also known as Squash Bugs

 

Just like shield bugs they go through various changes in their short lives - these changes are known as 'instars' and are similar to the various changes us adults go through - from baby to toddler to child to teenager etc

 

The first photo is of early instar

 

the next two are of late instar

 

and the rest are of young adults

 

Dock Bugs can be seen all year round - they have one generation per year - the adults mate and lay eggs in spring - the nymphs feed on dock and sorrel and the new adults are found from August onwards - they are pretty common and widespread yet I still get a kick when I see my first ones of the season

 

Another successful visit to Cranford Park with plenty to see and observe