Late yesterday afternoon I set up my trail cam at a secret location in Cranford Park, utterly convinced I would capture something good on film.
This morning I went back to retrieve the cam, and after a restful sit in the park, went home to upload the results and got......
Nothing.
Not a ducking thing.
The camera is working as the last two things it recorded are me setting it up and me taking it down. I guess next week I'll try a different location within the park.
Just near to the area where the cam was set up I found some Muntjac poop. And I found another group of poop by the wood circle. Looks like the little critters are visiting all over the park, just not where I had the trail cam set up.
More Bluebells are emerging in Cranford Woods. I cant wait to see the full 'carpet' out....
After yesterdays marathon seven hours on the patch, this morning I managed a more reasonable four hours and most of that time was spent sitting at the wood circle. It's official title is 'The Outdoor Classroom' but us Cranford Birders refer to it as the wood circle. During my visit today, 3/4 of my time was spent sitting on my favourite log at the wood circle, with my bottle of water, phone, camera, bins and fags all set out on my favourite log table. Missing from my little collection were the flask of coffee and cheese sandwiches that I had made at 7am, and that were still in my kitchen. Hence I only spent four hours at Cranford Park today instead of the eight or nine that I had planned on.
I love the wood circle. It's sheltered from the wind yet gets the sun all day long.
At 8am this morning it was just me and the singing birds.
As it got warmer so the Bee-flies came out to join me...
and so did the first awaking butterflies, the Common Blues. I haven't seen a female one yet this year, so all of my photos are of the tiny bright sky blue male....
The Green Woodpeckers were very active this morning, with several calling and chasing after each other all around the wood circle and a couple flying low over me to get to another. They should start settling down in a couple of weeks when the serious habit of breeding gets under way. Green Woodpeckers are much more territorial than Great Spotted Woodies. Once a pair of Green Woodies have made their nest hole, they don't venture far from it. Therefore the trees they choose to nest in are rarely deep in the woods, but more likely to be on the outskirts of them so there is the shortest route possible to their favoured nesting grounds. Grass. Ants are their favourite food.
Today they weren't that close to get a decent shot though, so you'll have to make do with some record pics....
Tony James, a fellow Cranford Birder and blogger (link to his blog here) found me in the wood circle late morning and we wandered off to the graveyard to look at nut casings left by the Grey Squirrels and Wood mice, and found two more Green Woodies flying around chasing each other and calling around the Memorial Gardens with a possible third Woody in the copse by the river.
But back to the wood circle, one of the birds I can almost guarantee seeing whilst I'm sitting there is the under-stated Stock Dove.
Stock doves are similar in plumage and size to feral pigeons but generally a bit smaller. They are largely blue-grey with an attractive iridescent bottle green band on the back of the neck. In flight they show black edges to the wing and two partial black bands near their back. Unlike feral pigeons they do not have pale rumps. They also have gorgeous black button eyes and are quite flighty. At Cranford Park they are quite wary of us human beans, so trying to get a photograph close up can be quite tricky. Luckily the ones I snapped below must have all thought I was one of the logs in the wood circle as they didn't flinch whilst I was taking photos, but the moment I moved my leg they all flew off.....
Another under-stated bird is the plain little Chiffchaff. The only thing that makes this little olive-brown job exciting is the fact that 90% of our Chiffchaffs are summer visitors. They overwinter in places like southern Asia and north America and most of Europe. But they fly all the way over to the UK to spend the summer. There are a few birds that stay in Britain over the winter, but I've never known one to stay over at Cranford Park. They are also quite flighty but not because they are wary of humans, but because they like to pick insects off the top branches of trees, singing 'chiffchaff chiffchaff chiffchaff' as they flit from branch to branch. Obviously this make photographing them a challenge, and I usually get my best shots when the birds have settled down which is in about a months time. But today at the wood circle one started calling from the highest branches and eventually got lower and lower.....
A Wren was also making it self known whilst I sat and listened. He eventually appeared out of nowhere and sat just a few feet away from me...
and of course another marmite Parakeet was inspecting yet another hole....
Tony and I spotted a Buzzard soaring over the wood circle....
and after Tony left a Red Kite came soaring over too....
So sometimes I don't go to Cranford Park to walk all around the river, Cranford Woods, St Dunstans grounds and the meadows. Sometimes I just sit in the same place for hours and let the wildlife come to me.
