Heathrow recce and Cranford Park

This morning I was on a recce around Heathrow with Nathalie, the Charing Cross Hospital Peregrines 'Godmother'.

She had been on a visit to the area last week and seen and heard Peregrines. A few years ago I had also seen the birds in exactly the same place, and narrowed it down to one particular hangar that they preferred. But that side of the airport is not one I pass any more on the way to work, so my Peregrine spotting never took off. However today, within just ten minutes of arriving, we had a view of one soaring overhead. It was quite distant and the bird was flying away rather towards us. But it was a sighting never the less.

Also with Nathalie's expert knowledge we found several buildings marked with Pere 'paint' (ie poop), nearly all of them around the same hangar. So early next year I'll be going back there to try and spot them.

 

Elsewhere we came across these two juvenile Kestrels on top of one of the BA buildings. While we were watching them an adult bird flew past with prey prompting one of them to take off after it.

 

 

There were also loads of Pied Wagtails around....

 

and a couple of Goldfinch...

 

and an obligingly singing Linnet...

 

Insect wise we saw a few butterflies but it was a bit blustery and there weren't settling, except for this Cinnabar day moth that was hunkered down.....

 

There were also a good number of plane spotters dotted around the perimeter roads. We joined in briefly but couldn't really see the thrill of standing around watching planes. I'd rather stand around watching nature....

A 'stack' of planes coming in to land

 

Next stop was Cranford Park. Nathalie and I heard a bird of preys distress call, looked up and there was a Red Kite going over. A similar thing happened to me last week in the same area, there was a loud distress call from one of the trees, I looked up and there was a Buzzards soaring low. We don't know for sure what species of bird of prey it was, but considering we have Kestrel, Sparrowhawk and Hobby in the area it was almost certainly one of them that was giving out the distress call.

 

Sue and Jasper the bird-dog joined us for a little while today. We located a Great Spotted Woodpecker nest, the young haven't yet reached the stage of appearing at the hole demanding food, but it wont be long before they are. They were very vocal today and we saw at least one adult bring in food.

 

Everyone knows Kestrels are my favourite bop, so to see the Heathrow fledged juveniles today was enough to put a smile on my face, but then at Cranford Park we saw an adult male fly in and perch on a nearby tree....

 

Later on in the afternoon we saw a juvenile in another tree nearby. So it looks as if our Cranford Park Kestrels are on the verge of attending 'Kestrel Academy' out in the meadows (eg they will be taught by their parents how to hunt). At the moment they're still staying close to the nest tree.

 

The warmer weather had bought out several butterflies, and the first Skippers of the year....

 

male Speckled Wood

male Large Skipper

male Large Skipper

Small Skipper

 

female Meadow Brown

Comma

tatty Small Heath

I found two species of caterpillar today....

 



Knot Grass moth caterpillar

Peacock butterfly caterpillars

  

Peacock caterpillar

There was a very attractive small moth loitering in the meadow....

 

Mother Shipton moth

Mother Shipton moth

A couple walking through the long meadow grasses, instead of sticking to the mown grass paths, flushed up a Skylark....

 

 

Please peeps, stick to the paths, that's what they are there for.

 

Considering Jasper the bird-dog is now almost blind due to his diabetes, he was as well behaved as always. I haven't seen for a couple of months so it was nice to be greeted by him jumping up at me and wagging his tail...

 

 

Later on in the afternoon I was showing Nathalie where I had seen two Swallows mobbing a Magpie recently but couldn't work out why. We soon saw both Swallows and after a bit of investigative work Nathalie found a nest. As with the Hobbys, Kestrels, Sparrowhawks etc I'm not going to say where the Swallows nest is. They need to bring up their young without any disturbance.

 

All in all it was a very enjoyable day. When Nathalie got home she checked her fitbit pedometer. It showed she had walked 22,675 steps. Take 4000 off that figure for Nathalies travelling to and from her home to Heathrow and that means I walked over 18,000 steps today.

 

And yes, I am feeling it, my feet are killing me !

A day at Maple Lodge NR - with special guests 'Fewy' and 'Posh Boy'

Today was my third visit to Maple Lodge Nature Reserve in Maple Cross, Hertfordshire.

On my last all day visit I was incredibly impressed by the quietness of the reserve, no children running around, no dogs barking at my camera, no oiks on motorbikes tearing about and no 'yummy mummys' pushing their prams. It was bliss, and at times it felt like it I was the only one there with just the wild life for company. Maple Lodge NR is a members only nature reserve, and it works perfectly.

 

Todays visit was no different, except that as a member I had invited two guests, John aka 'Fewy' and Rick aka 'Posh Boy'. Both had expressed an interest in visiting the reserve, and today was the day. Armed with fluids and food, we set out after I had read them the 'riot act'....

1) Stick to the paths.....

 2) Close all hide hatches when leaving a hide.....

3) No Barbeques.....

4) No skateboarding or scooters (made sure the Posh Boy understood that one, he can be a right tyke sometimes)....

5) Don't pick any flowers, fruit or fungi

6) Respect the wildlife

 

Basically take nothing but photos and leave nothing but footprints. As both Fewy and Posh Boy are fanatical nature photographers, I didn't need to repeat the rules twice. They know and they understand.

 

I've known for a while that a pair of Sparrowhawk have nested on the site, but I didn't know the exact location. Luckily for us one of the Saturday morning work party met us on the path way and without us even asking, she asked us if we wanted to see the nest site. We weren't going to say no of course, and we spent as little time as possible looking at the birds so we wouldn't disturb them. We went past a few more times during the course of the day, checking the nest first before grabbing a photo and moving on. This was probably the high-light of my day, along with the Kingfisher later, as this is the first time I've seen a Sprawk nest.

Don't let my photos fool you into how close the nest it, because it isn't. Heavy cropping is how I got these two shots, one from the morning and one from the afternoon....

 

 

I could have gone home happy with that, but the forecasted rain held off and although still overcast, it seemed a fine day to explore.

 

There was a wonderfully marked chrysalis on one of the Flag Iris leaves. I've left it to the Maple Lodge local insect expert, Martin Parr, to try and identify it (and it was nice to finally meet you today Martin).....

 

 

The Peacock caterpillars have started to emerge. This batch were by the Puddingbasin meadow....

 

Not many butterflies were around on this mainly sun-less day. I saw a male Brimstone flying but not settling, and this Meadow Brown settled just long enough for me to grab an open wing and under wing photo....

 

 

Over the last few weeks I've been photographing mainly male Scorpion Flies so it was nice to get a shot of a female one today...

 

 

It really is Damselfly season, there were plenty to see today....

 

Male Common Blue...

 

 

The jury is still out on this one below.....

 

Male Blue-tipped.....

Female Common Blue...

 

and finally a pair of mating Common Blue...

 

Fewy, Posh Boy and myself probably spent most of our time at the Long Hedge Hide today. We went back there twice. There was plenty to see.

 

 A family of Great Crested Grebes had two young 'humbugs', one of which was still small enough to get on and off it's parents back....

 

 

And there was a lone Little Grebe 'humbug' seen too....

 

We also had the pleasure of seeing a Pochard family go past....

 

But the high-light of the visit to this hide was having a Kingfisher fly in to the willows from over the hide, then fly to a nearby perch and fish and preen for almost an hour.......

My photos aren't great, I've only got a 300mm zoom lens, but I bet Fewy and Posh Boy got some cracking shots. The bird was so obliging....

 

 

On the same body of water I also saw my first beautifully marked juvenile Black-headed Gulls of the year.....

 

But that's not all we saw....

 

As anyone who reads my Cranford Park posts knows, I love Stock Doves. I get a real kick out of seeing these under-rated birds, so it was lovely to see several around Maple Lodge today....

 

 

Also seen today were this cleverly camouflaged Treecreeper....

 

 

a female Black Cap laden with food...

 

one of several Great Spotted Woodpeckers...

 

 

and one of loads of juvenile Blue Tits.....

 

There were also countless numbers of juvenile Long-tailed Tits, Great Tits and Wrens.

 

The meadow viewed from the Rotunda Hide has over 1000 Southern Marsh Orchid flowering spikes at the moment. My photo doesn't do them all justice...

 

 

We were incredibly lucky with the weather. There were a couple of heavy rain showers later in the afternoon but us trio were already tucked up in hides when the heavens opened.

 

 This Canada Gosling didn't mind the rain, it just kept on picking at whatever goslings pick at.....

 

 

All in all it was a good day out. Highlights for me were the Sparrowhawk and Kingfisher. I know they're both commonly seen birds, but I'm very easily pleased.

 

I'm also pleased to report Fewy and Posh Boy behaved themselves (makes a change - just saying......) and they didn't embarrass me in any way at all (which also makes a change - just saying....)

Both have decided to become members, which is great news for me as I don't drive and they both do, and they have to come past my home town to get to Maple Lodge (hint hint - just saying...)

 

Fewy and Posh Boy

One thing that really stuck out today though was the viewing panel near the Rotunda Hide. Absolutely perfect for my guests today. Fewy gets the top view and Posh Boy gets the bottom one.

It was just made for them.

 

 

 

Posh Boy

Fewy

 

Great day out at a great private nature reserve and with great company.