Everyone who knows me, knows I like to start my Cranford Park visits at the wood circle (aka the outdoor classroom). I like to sit on my favourite log with a cup of coffee and take in the surroundings. This morning was no different and I had a spare half an hour before I joined in Cranford Parks first ever Apple Day (link to that blog post here)
During this spring I had watched a family of Magpies grow up whilst sitting patiently at the wood circle. I often shared my breakfast with them, leaving titbits on a different log.
I hadn't done that for a while so as I had a bag of suet pellets in my rucksack, I left some on the usual log, and waited to see what would happen....
It took all of ten minutes for two Magpies to fly over to the tree above the log.....
and then fly down to the log to stuff as many pellets in their beaks as possible....
Many people dont like Magpies, but I think they, like all members of the Corvid family, are highly intelligent birds. I haven't fed these birds for many weeks yet they knew within minutes that I had left food out for them in the usual place. Most people think Magpies are common and boring but
I also think they are very handsome birds, and far from being black and white, they photograph well in this autumn light in another colour, an almost Prussian blue.....
But that's not their true colour. Magpies are black and white and most blue coloration in birds is structural, meaning that light is reflected off the feathers, somewhat like a prism, but the feathers also absorb much of the light spectrum, so you see a selective reflection. That reflection can vary with light conditions and angle of view. Todays autumnal light made the Magpies blue.
Another member of the clever Corvid family I saw from the wood circle was the Jay. They are clever enough to collect acorns, bury them in great numbers and remember where they buried them when food is hard to find in winter....
Most of the fungi I photographed last Sunday has gone over.
The Turkey Tail at the wood circle is still growing through....
A couple of Cranford Park friends messaged me during the week to say they had seen huge clumps of fungi in the graveyard by the Yew Tree. Most of it had gone over by the time I got there today but there were still a few mouse chewed specimens left.....
and tiny miniature clumps of more new fruiting bodies growing......
Whilst I was in the graveyard I heard a Kestrel call and looked up in time to see two fly over.
Back in the courtyard Alison Shipley had also heard them and seen one settle on the stable block roof. It was still there. A nice male bird with its steel grey coloured head. It seemed too curious in me to fly off at first, and let me stand almost directly under it.....
Before then taking off and flying back in to the park.
My lovely Mum popped down today to sample the apple juice and buy some cakes, and I also took her around some of my favourite places in the park. Sometimes when you write about a place so much, it's nice to share it in the real world too.
