Kingfisher overload at Cranford Park

My intention today was to join the guided Winter Walk at Cranford Park. It seems my intention went a bit astray........

I was at the park early. It was very frosty but promised to be a glorious sunny day.....

 

 

I had decided to spend an hour or two looking for the Kingfishers after last Saturdays success before then joining the rest of the Cranford Park Friends group for the Winter Walk.

 It didn't take me long to find one of the Kingfishers, and I was soon happily snapping away.....

 

 

 

However, after watching it for a while by the stone bridge, I realised it was following a pattern. It appeared to be the same bird each time, a lovely female with the red on the bottom of its bill making it different in appearance to the male, who has an all black bill. She would appear from under the stone bridge, spend quite a lot of time fishing from the branches and twigs by the bridge, before then flying up to, and under, the iron bridge. Several times I followed her, twice accidently flushing her from a shrub next to the iron bridge before then following her back down to the river and starting the progress all over again.

It was whilst I was walking back to the stone bridge on one of those occasions, that I bumped into Tony James. He had seen our lovely Kingfisher sitting on one of the parapets of the stone bridge and was patiently waiting for it to show again. She didn't disappoint and was already perched ready to fish by the time Tony and I lifted our cameras. From then, we spent over another two hours watching and photographing this beautiful little bird, all thoughts of the Winter Walk had vanished (sorry Alison and Bob).

 

 So ready yourself for a complete Kingfisher overload......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We did see the male Kingfisher briefly as he flew past and was then joined by the female, both noisily heading for the iron bridge. Tony and I followed and didn't have to wait long on the bridge before the female flew over our heads and swerved right over the trees. For a millisecond we wondered where she was going, then she re-joined the river route and sped away, but we then realised she was being chased by a Sparrowhawk, who on seeing she was back over the water swerved left in to one of the copses. Now I've had time to think about it, the Kingfisher was probably saving its own life. A Sparrowhawk will chase and kill most small birds but only if it has ground to land on with its prey. It would not have been able to catch the Kingfisher and risk landing in the river.

 

It was just after that incident that we bumped into Mark Collins with his camera in hand. I was so confident that we would be able to show Mark a Kingfisher fishing that I said I'd give him a fiver if he didn't.........

 

I'm still a fiver up.....

 

Like with Sheila last Saturday, our gorgeous resident Kingfisher sat right in front of the three of us and gave outstanding views for at least twenty minutes before then flying to the stone bridge parapet and then flying back down river.

 

We all split up after that, with Tony and Mark going home and me going for a much neglected wander around the rest of the park.

 

I found a Song Thrush in the now berry deleted Yew in the church grounds....

 

 

And another one by the Info Centre.....

 

There were several Jays flying around today, plus this one sitting by the stable blocks...

 

 

In Cranford Woods I found a pair of marmite Parakeets 'bonding' (the male is at the top) ......

 

 

and one of many many Grey Squirrels. This one was systematically stripping the berries from a Holly shrub...

 

 

A few weeks ago I spotted and photographed some Stags Horn Fungus. When I went back to the same spot today, there was a lot more of it.....

 

And to top my day off, as I was leaving the park I happened to glance up to see one of the Little Egrets circling above which eventually headed back for the river. It will be interesting to see if the Egrets stay at the park.

 

No sign at all of the Little Grebes on the river, but the levels are fairly high so the Grebes may return once the water levels drop.

Also seen but not photographed today were two Great Spotted Woodpeckers, one Green Woodpecker, c70 Jackdaws, four Stock Doves, two large Long-tailed Tit flocks (with one group containing two Goldcrests) and several singing Robins and Wrens.

 

So a great day out at the patch, even if I did miss the Winter Walk.

The only down side was no toilet. I've heard rumours that the new toilet block has been put out to tender. I just hope when ever it gets rebuilt, that it will be sooner rather than later. I'm getting a bit too old to be crouching behind logs and shrubs to take a pee !!!!