Cranford Park volunteering and hoverating

Over a year ago I blogged about the future plans for Cranford Park (please see both links below)....

Proposals for Cranford Park

blogpost from April 18th 2015

and as part of the bid being prepared by the London Borough of Hillingdon for the Heritage Lottery Fund (which despite rumours amongst some who frequent the park, has NOT yet been granted) we need to include figures on how many people are using the park. So over three days in June, including today, we were counting people, cars, bikes and even dogs coming in to the park from two locations - the car park and the Roseville Road underpass entrance. So that's how I spent five hours today with the company of Charmain from the LBH for the first three hours.

The only downside was it was a very overcast day and although I was stationed next to the hedgerow in the car park there was very little in the way of insects to keep me occupied whilst waiting for anyone to count, but it was great to have a chinwag with Charmain and learn about the process involved in bids like ours. They can take years to pass through, with several lengthy consultations and if the bid is successful and the funds granted, it must then be closely monitored for another ten years.
 Bids can only be submitted twice a year, so all in-depth preparation must be done months in advance.

Another event happening today was the annual Butterfly Walk. As stated above it was a very overcast day though and according to Dragena, who led the walk, and the 15 that accompanied her, there were only a few Meadow Browns and a couple of day moths seen. Many events at the park are organised months in advance so we can only hope for good weather, but it was good to see some new faces at the park.

After Bob relieved me of my head counting duties I went off in search of some wildlife.

The Little Owls are breeding in a new tree this year. Sue first spotted them a few weeks ago and we both saw an adult and one juvenile a couple of days later, but due to the location of the hollow it was impossible to get any photos. I checked the tree again this afternoon and briefly saw one adult at the front of the hollow, who quickly retreated when it realised I was there. But it's great news that they are back.

I saw a Kestrel several times today. It was the male and he was always flying to and from the same location, so I know roughly the area where they are nesting this year.

I also saw one distant flying Hobby and two Buzzards.

Woodpeckers were very vocal and flighty today. I saw and heard three Great Spotted and four Green.

Up at the Headland end of the park I immersed myself in a spot of hoverating and got photos of four species. The umbellifer plants they like are almost at head height now, so made for some different angled photos than I normally take...

Episyrphus balteatus - the Marmalade Fly on a dandelion

Volucella pellucens

Myrathropa florea

another angle of Myathropa florea

 

Melangyna compositarum / labiatarum

 

The bees also like these plants and there were plenty of Honeybees around today, along with a few Common Carders, White-tailed bumbles and this poor Buff-tailed bumble that appeared to have something like a tiny cigar attached to it's face.

 

 After much research when I got home, this 'cigar' is actually a tiny beetle, Antherophagus species. This beetle lives in bumblebee nests and it gets from nest to nest by hitching a ride. To do this it sits in a flower and when a bumblebee visits, it bites onto the bee's tongue, and doesn't let go until it has been carried back to the bee's nest.....

 

 

 

Many thanks to David Notton for the confirmation.

 

The Headland area is one of the best places in the park to see our summer resident Common Whitethroat. There were several heard and seen today and this adult was happy to sing for me in clear view....

 

 

All the rain we have had recently has meant quite a few little fungi have popped up...

 

I didn't stay too long as the weather conditions weren't really ideal, but at least I got to do my bit for the bid for the Heritage Lottery Fund.

 

The next event at Cranford Park will be the annual summer Family Open Day on July 23rd from 11am - 4.30pm. The historic Stable Block will be open, as will St Dunstans church and the Secret Garden. Entrance and all activities are free and include a mini animal farm, falconry display, medieval Knights, story telling for the kids and much more. There will also be a plant stall, cake stall, tombola and bric-a-brac. Refreshments will be available in the churchyard.

 

If you're really lucky you might even spot me dressed as 18th century House Maid.........

 

 

 

Day 8 of Fledge Watch and the day PF finally flew the roost with an RAF flypast for him......

Yes there is a five day gap between my blog posts Day Two (last Sunday) and Day Eight (today) but I had to work Monday to Friday, whilst Nathalie devoted all of her waking hours to watching the peregrines. You can catch up on the weeks events on the Fulham and Barnes Peregrines Facebook page.

 

Basically in a nutshell PF, the only surviving youngster of Tom and Charlie, was due to fledge last week. Peregrines generally fledge aged around 42 days old. When I left him last Sunday (PF is a male) he was 40 days old. So all of this week I've been expecting to hear that he finally took his first flight. But no, he got himself a bit of a reputation as a lazy boy......not a lot of wing flapping and practice jumping, just a lot of eating, sleeping and pancaking.

 I even joked that perhaps he was waiting for my visit today, and I was VERY nearly right. At 9am this morning I checked to see if he had fledged and he hadn't. Maybe I had predicted correctly - was he waiting for me ???

 

No. I arrived at the back of Charing Cross Hospital just before 11am to be told he had finally taken the leap and flown off the nest ledge at 9.26 this morning !!

And the only witness was a friend I hadn't seen for ages, the lovely Carol Rawlings.

 

Today was a proper mixed bag. I had two massive epic failed photos (as you'll read later), we had great views of the planes flypast after their stint at the Trooping the Colour and we had time to do some critter searching.

 

But to start the day it was 'find the fledgling' for Nathalie and Carol after his un-warned launch off the balcony. As Carol said, one minute he was there, the next he'd gone (there is a vid clip of this on the FaB facebook page - link above). They found him before I arrived. He'd managed to land amongst the tallest set of aerials on the hospital roof.....

 

Can you see him ?

 

 

Can you see him now ?

 

Both Tom and Charlie knew where he was and occasionally flew around the hospital building.

Just after 1pm the RAF planes from the Trooping the Colour gave us our own flypast show, and one of the bigger ones went directly overhead spooking up every bird on the hospital, including Charlie, but not our PF - he stayed settled amongst the aerials.

 

A little while later Charlie decided enough was enough. He had to come out. She watched for a while from another set of aerials and satellite dishes, then took off, flew towards him and around the mast and flew back......

 

This was enough encouragement to get PF moving. He made his way up the mast, eventually perching on one of the satellite dishes.....

 

 

and then took off.....

which leads to epic photo fail number one below......

the only photo I managed to get of PF flying today and the whole picture was out of focus......

 

He flew a short distance in a semi circle, started to head over the hospital, then almost stopped and hovered before dropping down on the flat roof near where one of the 'larders' are.

Photo below is of Charlie checking out that corner after PF landed there....

 

 

Of course on top of the flat roof we couldn't see PF at all, and we could only watch both Charlie and Tom and guess where PF was. Fledge Watch wasn't just truly starting for us, but also for the parents, who both seemed to take it in turns to choose perches that enabled them to keep an eye on him.

 

Charlie below....

 

and Tom on the nest ledge.....

 

Later this afternoon, Tom flew over to the corner of the flat roof and PF immediately stuck his head up to greet him. No doubt then that our lazy boy had been happily sleeping up there.

 

Back to the flypast, although I was sent a link to name each plane correctly I haven't had time to study it yet. But it was a lovely experience which started with three huge Chinooks in the distance, then planes all coming from the same direction but all veering off so that some went past us on the right hand side and some went completely over head....

 

 

which leads to epic failed photo number two....

the Red Arrows.....

completely out of focus though I managed to get the trees in lovely focus.....

 

There were several critters out in the cemetery today.

This one below I thought at first was a hoverfly larvae but turns out it is a Lacewing larvae....

 

 

There were several Seven-spot ladybirds around....

 

lots and lots of these tiny Longhorn beetles, which are probably 'strangalia melanura' according to my ecologist friend Jonesy.....

 

there were also great numbers of the Burnet Companion day flying moth....

 

and a few Meadow Brown butterflies, my first of the year, including this obliging male that gave me great views of both under wing and open wing......

 

I had a chance to do a bit of hoverating this afternoon and came away with two species.

 

This is Syrphus vitripennis - a male - only males have eyes that meet in the middle....

 

 

and the one below is one of our commonest hoverfly, the very pretty Marmalade Fly - Episyrphus balteatus - a female (there is a gap between the eyes)

 

The one below had me stumped until I got home and enlarged the photo. It wasn't a hoverfly, nor a mimic bee. So I had to get better clarification from the Insects facebook page and a very knowledgeable Jaswinder Boparai identified it as a Cephidae - a stem boring sawfly.....

 

 

Apart from my two epic photo failures, it was a great day.

 

To end my blog are three photos of Charlie and one of Tom.

Fledge Watch isn't over now PF has fledged. Tom and Charlie will begin the steady process of helping PF learn to fly strong and hunt prey. My next visit is Sunday 19th June and it will be really interesting to see how far PF has come by then. For daily updates, photos and vid clips please visit the FaB Peregrine facebook page run by the peregrines 'Godmother' and my friend, Nathalie (the link is at the top of this blog post).

 

Without Nathalie we wouldn't be privileged to see these urban Peregrines. Her understanding and constant monitoring of these birds over the past few years, largely on her own, has been shared with thousands of us.

Nathalie - we thank you !

 

Charlie

Charlie

Charlie on the nest ledge, with the aerials above her that she had to perch on to encourage PF to fly today

 

Tom earlier today, on the same corner where PF eventually landed after his second flight of the day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fulham and Barnes Peregrines Fledge Watch Day 2.....

Day 2 of Fledge Watch. Our young eyas, PF, is 40 days old today.

 

It was a very warm day and there wasn't much to see in the cemetery. Many birds were staying out of the hot sun but we did hear Goldcrests, saw Long-tailed Tits and both Sue and Nathalie got some good views of juvenile Coal Tits. We also heard a Blackcap calling and got good views of Goldfinches perched on the nearby house aerials. There were also quite a few Swift and House Martins flying over making their distinctive calls.

 

But the bird we came to see was the lovely adorable PF, who is already developing quite a character.

 

When PF wasn't peering over the ledge wall......

 

 

or 'pancaking' out of view, he was doing a lot of wing flapping......

 

But he isn't quite running the length of the ledge yet. His confidence is growing though and most times after wing stretching and flapping you could see bits of downy feathers floating around. His adult feathers are definitely emerging more and more day by day.

 

The morning was fairly quiet with several sightings of both Tom and Charlie flying over head...

 

 

and there were a couple of bouts of excitement when twice a Buzzard flew over very high up and got mobbed by both of the Peregrines. No photos unfortunately as they were so high up in the thermals.

 

Todays feed time was by dad, Tom, which made for some nice size comparison photos of father and son. PF still looks quite small next to Tom but isn't as dwarfed as he is when he's next to mum Charlie.....

 

Tom on the left, PF on the right...

 

"Bye Dad, thanks for dinner".......

 

Tom flew off afterwards and landed on one of his favoured perches....

 

Just before I left with Sue, Charlie bought a pigeon in but took it straight to the larder on the roof for plucking. Not a great photo as the sun was directly in my eyes....

 

 

Whilst it was quiet this morning we watched a couple of Rose Chafers flying around. Luckily for us one landed nearby and Nathalie was able to pick it up. What a beautiful creature the chafer is. My photo doesn't do the colours justice....

 

Sadly due to work commitments I wont be attending Fledge Watch over the next five days. My next visit will be next Saturday. By then PF will have surely fledged and taken his first flight, so safe fledging little PF.

 

To keep up to date with this weeks events please see the Fulham and Barnes Peregrines Facebook page for both vid clips and still photos posted daily.