My original plan today was to pop to Cranford Park, collect some more perennial Sweet Pea seeds to replace the ones that got eaten by slugs and snails in Mum's garden and then go home and do some housework. Just as I was leaving I decided to take my camera just in case I did see something interesting. And it's a good job I did. My planned hour long visit turned into a six hour jaunt round the park.
I found all five Kestresl hunting and flying around the long grasses and meadow in the centre of the park. At first I could only find the three juveniles. They are still to be found perching on the short trees and shrubs, or on the grassy paths and hovering low.
Then I watched a display of typical sibling rivalry. One of the juveniles landed on a tree guard where another juvenile was already perched, and it didn't take kindly to one of its siblings landing there at all.
The juvenile on the right was the one that was already perched, the juvenile on the left was the one that landed afterwards. I'll let the photos speak for themselves....
The original bird was the winner, and the intruding juvenile was driven off. All though it looked vicious and there was a lot of noise, both birds came out of this 'cat' fight unscathed.
The whole time I was at the park today I could see a lot of flight interaction between all five of the Kestrels. Are the parents passing on some final tips before the juveniles leave for good ?
On my way to the river I found these Pheasant feathers. Not a good sign I thought, but I then heard one call from the other side of the bank. So maybe Mr Pheasant got in to a scuffle but survived. I wont know for sure because despite a Pheasant being heard frequently by myself, Tony and Sue, none of us have ever seen one.
One of the Kingfishers whizzed past me several times as I walked from the iron bridge to the stone bridge. Way too fast for me to capture whilst it was flying, but I did notice that every time it had a fish in its beak it flew up the river towards the M4 underpass, and every time I saw it fly back down again there was no fish in its beak. This tells me two things. One: it has another brood of chicks to feed, and two: the nest hole is in the Cranford Park area the other side of the M4. The River Crane continues to flow under the M4 and through another part of Cranford Park, which is so rarely visited it's quite a shame. There's a lovely nature trail walk that goes through the woods and along side the river, before emerging by the underpass entrance.
I decided to hang around the stone bridge for a while to see if my theory about the Kingfisher is right. And it looks as if I am. As I watched from the top of the stone bridge looking towards the M4, a Kingfisher flew under the bridge and straight in to one of the willows. Shame it wasn't a bit more considerate, this was the best shot I could get......
It then dived into the river, caught a fish and flew straight under the M4. Exactly as I was predicting.
Whilst I was hanging around waiting for it to come back out, this lovely Chiffchaff gave me some good views......
Then I noticed a Blue Tit in the water. Initially I had a bit of a panic, thinking it was drowning, but what it's actually cleverly doing is using the bent over weeds in the river as a perch whilst it bathes.
The rest of its family were observing nearby, and soon they were all at it. At the most I counted eleven Blue Tits spread across the width of the river doing this...
I lost an hour on the stone bridge looking down watching the Blue Tits. The Kingfisher did emerge again, and he/she followed the same routine three more times before I decided to move on.
The poppy patch to commemorate tomorrows 100 year anniversary of World War I, still has some flowering poppies. The patch was not as successful as hoped, with a lot of the seeds being washed out or to the edges by some heavy rain we had just after they were sown, but it's the thought that counts and every borough in the country will have a patch like this positioned somewhere.
At the outdoor school area (the ring of log seats and tables by the haha wall) I noticed more evidence of another bonfire, plus people have been moving the log seats around. Please, just leave the area as it was intended. Don't ruin it for others.
The wild plants around this area are where I collect my perennial sweet pea seeds from. I found a patch that hadn't yet been cut down, and collected some more seeds. Whilst I was doing this I observed a pair of butterflies fall to the ground.
It was a male and female Green-veined White. The female is pictured at the bottom (with the two spots on its wing) with the male above (with the one spot on its wing).....
The male was desperately trying to interest the female into mating....
But the female was having none of it....
It could be that she had already mated with another male, or that she simply wasn't ready. Either way the way she threw up her body was the equivalent of a human female telling her partner, 'sorry, not tonight love, I've got a headache'.
The male soon got the picture, and drifted off to find a female who hopefully didn't have a headache.....
Other butterflies seen around the park today were this Common Blue....
Comma....
and Red Admiral....
I also saw lots of Speckled Woods, Meadow Browns and Gatekeepers.
So that's my account of my visit today, which should have been a short one but turned in to a very enjoyable long one.
Enjoyed that, thanks Wendy
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