Great news from Cranford Park

Late yesterday afternoon I had just got out of the bath, was snuggly dressed in my pyjamas and logging on to Facebook, when I saw that my friend Sue had been to Cranford Park and got photos of some juvenile Kestrels. I cursed myself for not having gone there myself (and silently cursed Sue for not phoning me whilst she was there), and so after changing my plans for today I found myself in an almost empty park at 8am this morning.

 

Why was I cursing so much ? Last year due to the bad spring we had, our resident Kestrels fledged their young much later in the summer and I missed it. I swore that this year I wouldn't do that.

 I spent many many many hours during February, March and April monitoring our male and female Kestrels. I watched them bonding and mating, I eventually found their nest tree and I saw them often mobbing any Red Kites or Buzzards that dared to fly over the nest. Then my Mum was diagnosed with Cancer and for a couple of months I neglected Cranford Park to concentrate on looking after Mum during her treatment. Thankfully she is now slowly, but surely, feeling much better.

 

I had done my calculations for guessing when the juvenile Kestrels would fledge, and guess-timated it to be around the first week of July.

 

Well I was wrong.

 

Judging by Sue's photos, the juveniles were already out in the open grounds, often perching on the tree guards or on the grass path ways. Sue also photographed the adult male, and although he was keeping an eye on his 'teenagers', he wasn't feeding them. And the juveniles had no sign of any 'fluffy' feathers. They all had adult feathers. So at a rough guess, I reckon they possibly fledged from the nest about two weeks ago. Which means if you want to go and see them, I would recommend you do it sooner rather than later. It wont be long before our juveniles start exploring further and further away, eventually finding new territories to call their own.

 

So back to today.....

 

After a walk all around the edges of the open meadow grass land, I managed just two brief distant glimpses of one of the juvenile Kestrels, but by the time I had reached both spots, the Kestrels had moved on. I wandered around Cranford Woods and checked the nest tree and the surrounding trees, and couldn't find one Kestrel. I checked the orchard and the back of the stable block, the grave yard and memorial gardens, the Headland area and the River Crane. Still not one sighting of a Kestrel.

 

Sue was due to meet me at lunchtime, so I kept myself busy watching and photographing some of the other park residents.

 

Around the Headland, the Common Whitethroats were loudly singing and after a lot of checking through my bins I found at least ten adults and six juveniles. It looks like it's going to be a good year for these migrating warblers.

 

adult Common Whitethroat

juvenile Common Whitethroat

As to be expected at this time of year, there were several species of butterfly.

 

Meadow Browns were abundant.......

 

Along with good numbers of Small Skippers.....

 

 

Also seen today were a few Commas....

 

a couple of Peacocks...

 

 

my first Six-Spot Burnet, which isn't a butterfly but a day flying moth....

 

 

several Small Tortoiseshells.....

 

and the expected Speckled Woods.....

 

 

Eventually I made my way back towards the car park for a sit down, a sandwich and a quick fag at the Information Centre before Sue arrived. I also had a wander around the oaks in front of the Centre. Last summer we had fantastic views of two juvenile Little Owls there, and I was just wondering to myself if we'd get the same views this year, when something small, rounded and brown caught my eye as it flew from a nearby tree straight in to one of the oaks. A quick glimpse though my bins confirmed my suspicion. An adult Little Owl ! My camera was on it within seconds and I managed to grab four photos before it flew off again into another oak tree......

 

 

However, it wasn't until I got home and uploaded my photos from today, that I realised I hadn't just  photographed one Little Owl, I had actually got TWO.......

 

Shame the second one was half buried behind some oak leaves........

 

I honestly did not spot it at the time, so when the original bird flew again, I followed it instead of staying with the second bird.

 Now I could kick myself, mainly because I have a sneaky suspicion the second bird could be a juvenile.......

I've enlarged a photo below of the second bird to try to explain why I think its a juvenile. Its head is mainly still brown rather than speckled, the pale rings around its eye are more rounded than the adult and don't look like the adult 'eyebrows', and the top of the the chest (which you can just about see through the tops of the oak leaves) is still brown rather than streaked. Feel free to tell me I'm wrong or if I've missed out on any distinguishing features. I'm no expert. Last years juveniles were obvious as they still had 'fluffy' feathers, but I'm starting to wonder if we've missed that chance this year, and that the Little Owls fledged sooner and we've missed the cute fluffy stage.

 

After losing sight of the first Little Owl, Sue arrived with Jasper the bird-dog. And after showing her my photo of the owl, they were both soon searching for it themselves.......

 

 

During the couple of hours that Sue and Jasp were there, we twice went back to the oaks but could not re-locate the owls.

 

Elsewhere though we did watch a Buzzard being mobbed by a Carrion Crow.....

 

 

and we eventually found one of the juvenile Kestrels !

 

 

After Sue and Jasper left, I wandered up the grass path that runs straight through the centre of the open meadow grass land. Within minutes I found all three juveniles. Sadly for the photo conscious me the birds were not all together but scattered over the park.

 

I watched some flying close to me, some practising their hover technique, one catching grasshoppers from the grass paths and some perching on the small trees within the tree guards.....

 

 

 

 

From my observations today and the hundreds of photos I took, I can definitely confirm we have three juvenile Kestrels. And I am pretty sure they are two females and a male.

 

I cannot put into words just how chuffed I am. After spending so much of my free time during late winter and early spring observing and monitoring our beautiful adult Kestrels, I have now seen today their own offspring learning how to hunt, fly and hover. As they get older their ability and instinct to catch small mammals like voles and mice will become more focused, and then they will drift off to find their own partners and territories.

 So apart from missing them actually fledge the nest, I was at least able to watch the 'teenagers' in the 'field'.

 

Precious.

 

If you want to see the juveniles, I suggest you do this. From the car park head towards Heathrow taking the most central grass path up and across the open meadow grass land. Keep checking the wooden fence-like tree guards either side and keep checking the path in front of you. Today I often watched the juveniles on the ground taking grasshoppers and crickets practising their 'mantle' skills where they fold their wings over their heads.

 

So after a fantastic, and much overdue, visit to Cranford Park, there's only one photo that must be shared. Jasper the bird-dog enjoying the long grassy edges of one of the many paths.