The Secret Garden butterflies at Cranford Park

I may get a little over excited in this blog post so please bear with me

 

Yesterday before I left Cranford Park I quickly popped in to the Secret Garden - I was chatting with Martyn when I spotted what I thought was a large pale Comma but something didn't feel right about it - I couldn't linger though and had to leave

 

It niggled me all evening that I had seen something a little 'different' so today I went back to the Secret Garden and spent a very pleasant three hours in there

 

Within minutes of me arriving the large washed out butterfly again appeared and even though it was high on the buddleia I was ready with my camera - a quick check on the back of the screen confirmed my suspicions - this wasn't a large pale Comma - this was a very tatty male Silver-washed Fritillary !!!!!!!!!! Not only was this my first ever sighting of this large butterfly but I suspect it may be a first for Cranford Park too - I'm in touch with my UKBMS mentor and will let you know when I hear from him

 

So be prepared for a complete overload of photos

 

 

It's not an overly rare butterfly but it is a localised one and is mainly seen only in the south  - it is the largest of our resident butterflies and has a powerful gliding flight pattern

 

I'm still glowing from my unexpected find

 

My second nice find of the day was another worn butterfly

It's a Purple Hairstreak - This is my third sighting of one in as many weeks - normally these small butterflies are only seen flying around the tops of oak trees but the three I've seen this season have all been low down on the ground (which has made trying to photograph them really difficult) - todays one also was low down in vegetation and kept disappearing under leaves so was incredibly hard to focus on

 

 

So far 2018 has been an incredible butterfly season for me with now two new 'patch ticks' and some great counts when doing my transect

 

The third nice surprise today was the sighting of a Jersey Tiger moth - my second sighting this season - and there wasn't just one there were two sheltering in the ivy

 

 

Sometimes the best days are the unplanned ones like today

 

Other butterflies seen in the Secret Garden were several Red Admirals

 

 

a couple of Small Coppers

and an incredible number of Holly Blues

 



 

 

I have never seen so many in one concentrated area

 

Other critters seen were the beautiful tiny Mint moth

 

and two hawker species of dragonfly

An absolutely incredible three hours spent in the walled garden and one that I will never forget

 

Critters at Cranford Park

I was at Cranford Park today primarily to do the butterfly transect but it was such a nice day that I hung around afterwards to see what other critters were about

 

This is a species of wasp called the Ornate Tailed Digger wasp (cerceris rybyensis) - it is a fairly widespread species which kills mining bees and takes them to it's nest for the grubs to feed on

 

 

This beautiful day flying tiny moth is the Mint moth (Pyrausta aurata) - they have two flying seasons - late spring and late summer

 

 

The cooler weather meant there were lots of hoverflies around - ids under each photo

Heliophilus pendulus

Volucella pellucens - aka Great Pied Hoverfly

Volucella zonaria - aka the Hornet mimic

Eristalis sp

Syrphus sp

The butterfly count was quite good - you can tell that high season is over now as my count was only 130 butterflies of 11 species

 

Large White x 19

Small White x 14

Small Copper x 15

Common Blue x 12

Brown Argus x 2

Holly Blue x 6

Red Admiral x 3

Comma x 1

Speckled Wood x 17

Gatekeeper x 33

Meadow Brown x 8

 

Small Copper

Small Copper

 

Speckled Wood

Speckled Wood

Meadow Brown

Meadow Brown - underwing

Red Admiral

Red Admiral - underwing

Common Blue

Comma - a very tatty individual

Holly Blue

Holly Blue

Brown Argus

 

Brown Argus

Brown Argus

Brown Argus - a tatty individual

I'll be at the park again tomorrow to work out the best route for the Cranford Park Butterfly Walk that I will be leading on Saturday August 4th - meet at the Information Centre at 11am - it's looking to be a hot day so bring bottled water and a sun hat if you can make it

 

 

 

 

Scorchio at Cranford Park

I completed the UKBMS butterfly transect yesterday on one of the hottest days of the year - I also walked it whilst the meadow was being mown so my numbers are well down on last week

 

18th July - 234 butterflies of 15 species

25th July - 179 butterflies of 12 species

 

Large White x 31

Small White x 5

Small Copper x 11

Common Blue x 23

Brown Argus x 5

Holly Blue x 6

Peacock x 1

Speckled Wood x 32

Gatekeeper x 39

Meadow Brown x 23

Small Heath x 2

Purple Hairstreak x 1

 

I spotted the Purple Hairstreak in the same location as the one I found on 18th July - again I could only see the one but I managed to fire off some photos this time - they're not great but they will do as record shots for now

 

Purple Hairstreak - record shot

Purple Hairstreak - record shot

Purple Hairstreak - record shot

and here are the best of the rest - ids under photos

 

Brown Argus

Brown Argus

 

Gatekeepers mating

Gatekeepers mating

 

Gatekeepers mating

 

male Common Blue

Small Heath

Small Heath

 

Large White

Small Copper

Small Copper

Small Copper

Holly Blue

Holly Blue

Speckled Wood

The meadow being cut attracted five Red Kites and one Common Buzzard - I tried hard to get them all in one picture but could only manage three

 

 

I've seen Kites and Buzzards do this before - sometimes when a field is being ploughed - I guess its because small prey may be flushed out or earthworms and other tasty critters exposed

 

The heat meant there weren't that many hoverflies around but I did find this beauty in some shady grass - its a female Chrysotoxum bicintum

 

 

There are still no signs of any juvenile Kestrels so I went back over my records to see the dates I had recorded for them appearing in the meadows

 

12th July 2013

4th July 2014

4th July 2015

17th July 2016

2nd July 2017

 

I am now fairly certain we will not see any at Cranford Park this year which is a real shame as they were so entertaining watching them learn how to hunt and hover

 

We desperately need a day of rain to help not only the grass but also the wildlife - it was very very quiet bird wise yesterday - the river level is low and the wildlife pond level is low

 

I'm leading a guided Butterfly Walk at Cranford Park on the 4th August - all ages welcome - meet at the Information Centre at 11am