Cranford Park - more spring flowers, more animal tracking and a few birds

It might have been a grey blustery day today but that didn't stop some things at Cranford Park shining bright and beautiful.

 

More wild violets in the graveyard have emerged and are not only creating mini carpets under some of the tree canopies, but have self seeded in between several of the paving slabs....

 

 

The early bees are enjoying them too...

 

 

More Lesser Celandine have bloomed too....

 

 

and the whole time I was taking photos and admiring the flowers, I was serenaded by a Robin...

 

 

In Cranford Woods I found both Green and Great Spotted Woodpeckers today, sometimes they were calling but mainly they were very flighty, only perching for a short while to look around.....

The light was not very good for photography today, hence my photos are certainly not my best...

 

Green Woodpecker

Great Spotted Woodpecker

On my last couple of visits to the park I've noticed a Jay hanging around the same little copse of shrubs and trees. He/she was there again today, digging up buried acorns from deep under a bush, eating them and then wiping it's beak on a branch....

 

 

By the underpass there are two wild plum trees. A couple of Long-tailed Tits were picking their way through the blossoms....

 

 

and one was wiping its beak the whole length of the twigs. It's doing this to collect all the spiders webs so it can build it's intricately designed nests.....

 

I couldn't find any of their nests today, but did find a nest of another species of bird. More about that later....

In the Memorial Garden I found another two trees with bark damage, probably made by our visiting Muntjac and Roe Deer....

 

 

Sue and Jasper joined me for a little while and we followed a trail of deer 'slots' all along the side of the River Crane....

 

 

We must have found over 15 'slots' along the same stretch, and some of them were deep in the mud and splayed, which could mean the Muntjac was running rather than ambling along.

 

We even found some poop. Again, like last Tuesday, I am 99% sure this is Muntjac Deer pooh. It's a little bigger than the usual Rabbit droppings we are all used to seeing at the park, but it's much darker in colour, almost cylindrical and tapered at one end. There were five droppings stuck together, so I prised one off and put down a twenty pence piece for size comparison...

 

 

Rabbits tend to use a 'latrine' and all poop in the same place (as in the photo below). Their droppings are flat and round and usually a lighter colour....

 

 

I wasn't at the park for long today but I did see the resident Meadow Pipits, four Skylark and a Kestrel hunting over the open long grass land.

 

On Wednesday whilst on my way to work I heard the distinct call of a Goldfinch and located it to a tiny nest about ten foot up a tree. The nest was still being built and I checked on it every morning until today when I was able to finally photograph it. The leaves on the tree will soon be out which will shield my view from the nest, so I took advantage today and took several photos. The first three photos were in my favour with the light in the right place, but photo number four I had to heavily lighten and crop just to show the bird on the nest. I wanted a better angle of it. It does look like the nest is still being added to. I saw both birds bringing in nesting material today and adding to the tiny cup shaped structure. The nest is made of lichen, moss, small twigs, grass and generally lined with thistle down or more moss.

I also done a little research on the internet, and it's actually quite unusual for these beautiful little birds to nest so low down a tree. I'll be keeping my eyes on this nest. Fingers crossed they should start laying eggs in a week or so time....

 

 

 

 

 

So despite the grey skies and often blustery winds today, it was a pleasant day all round.

 

As always when I've seen Jasper on my travels, here is a photo of the bird-dog in the leaves. Apparently he saw me before I saw him today, and started following me. Bless him...

Back on the patch....

I haven't been to Cranford Park since 8th March and it was lovely to see all the signs of spring are really showing well. Birds were singing. Wildflowers are blooming. And our first migrant bird, the Chiffchaff, is back.

 

The first person I saw today was Alison Shipley, the boroughs Countryside and Conservation Officer. She had come down to open the fire damaged Information Centre. The last remains of the old marble 'grey lady' statue that was damaged when the Centre went up in flames, were being removed today by specialists who are hopeful they can reconstruct it. Great news. Now the statue remains have been removed, the next step is to rebuild the Centre itself. That should start happening next month hopefully.

 

Just as I had been walking through the Stable Block arch, Alison had seen a Curlew fly over the park heading towards the airport. Maintenance work is happening at Minet CP at the moment so we think it could have been flushed up from there as it came from that direction.

 

Elsewhere around the park Robins were singing declaring their territories and being very obliging for a photo......

 

 

Some fresh fungi has popped up by the outdoor classroom (ring of logs)....

 

 

and some old fungi has sprouted fresh fruit deep in Cranford Woods....

 

 

At one of last years Green Woodpecker nesting holes, a marmite Parakeet was in residence....

 

 

Great Tits were very vocal with their huge range of notes....

 

 

The Meadow Pipit numbers seem to have grown. There must have been around 30 birds being regularly flushed up by both dogs and, occasionally, the odd Carrion Crow.....

 

 

Below is a closer cropped photo of the two Mipits above....

 

 

The Mipits seem to be perching on the tree guards more and more at the moment....

 

 

 

A pair of Skylark were also displaying, flying high in to the sky, gently 'parachuting' down and singing the whole time. As soon as they land back in the long grasses, the singing stops and they become invisible.

 

Along the River Crane I heard three separate Chiffchaffs calling. It was very hard to spot any of them today, but I eventually saw one taking a 'bath' on the waters edge. As soon as I'd got my camera focused, the bird had moved in to some scrubby shrub and was preening. This was the only photo that I could get in focus...

 

 

In St Dunstans graveyard wildflowers have emerged. Using the handy little guide below, I found three of the ten most seen in March...

 

 

I got the above downloadable id sheet from Plantlife. It's not very clear on this blog post, but you can download your own by clicking here

 

Wild Violet - don't know yet if this is V odorata (Sweet) or V riviania (Dog) as I neglected to smell it.

Lesser Celandine -  Ranunculus ficaria

 

Red Dead-nettle - Lamium purpureum

Last month I found a couple of interesting holes in St Dunstans, and on looking again today at one of them I found lots of empty nut shells right outside the hole.

 

 

The hole is about five inches wide, so I presumed it would be a rat, but the empty nut casings tell a different story.....

 

 

The twenty pence piece is for size reference. The casing at the bottom is typical of how a Grey Squirrel would split the nut and eat the insides. But the two casings above look like Wood Mouse. I'm hoping my good friend, Susy, will be able to confirm this. The larger casing at the top left I cant decide on.

 

Also in the graveyard I found a small pile of mammal poop. Encouraged by my new book 'Mammal Detective' by Rob Strachan and also inspired by Chris Packham, I decided to smell the poop. It was the wrong colour, size and shape for any of the resident Rabbits, and in hindsight I should have put a coin next to for size reference as I had with the nut casings, but it was about an inch long and black-brown in colour, and tapered at one end. The poop smelt of wet hay, so I think this is Muntjac Deer poo.....

 

 

Which as I didn't find any deer tracks at all today, made me quite happy in a strange Wendy kind of way......hahaha

 

In the Memorial Garden there were two Mistle Thrushes and a Green Woodpecker feeding on the deck but a dog spooked all of them just as I was photographing one of the Thrushes....

 

 

No signs of either of the Kingfishers today, but I noticed a lot of heavy duty cutting back has been done along the River Crane bank from the iron bridge heading towards Cranford Lane. There's deep furrows where a tractor has been, and the holly bush I hid behind to watch the Kingfishers last month has gone, along with some of the brambles along that stretch. So sadly it's possible the Kingfishers have been disturbed and moved on. If any one spots a Kingfisher at Cranford Park please post the sighting on the Friends of Cranford Park facebook page or email me directly on wendywinomarks@hotmail.co.uk.

 

Also if any of the Cranford Park Friends see any deer around the park can you email me with the area and the time of day seen. Thanks in advance.

 

 I spent several minutes watching a Blue Tit investigate a potential new nesting site near the oaks. I've been watching this particular tree for some years now, and every year the same hole is either used by Blueys or Great Tits, depending on who lays first claim to the nearby nest box....

 

 

 

I didn't witness any nesting material being taken in, but the hole was visited several times by both the male and female Bluey. It's hard to 'sex' Blue Tits but during the mating season the male generally has a brighter blue cap than the female....

 

 

You can tell it's spring as the first bees are bumbling around and blossom is on the hawthorn and wild plum trees...

 

 

So, as always, I had a lovely four hour wander around the park. There's lots of lush fresh Bluebell leaves emerging in Cranford Woods, Green Woodpeckers are constantly 'yaffling' and Skylarks are singing. Spring is here.

WWT Caerlaverock - part three - Green-winged Teal, Badgers and pellets.

 

Part three and my final blog post from my recent stay at WWT Caerlaverock......

 

Another bird appearing daily on the bird sightings section of the Caerlaverock website (link here) is a male Green-winged Teal.

 This bird is a twitchers big tick and I'm not a twitcher, but along with the Yellowhammers, Whooper Swans and Barnacle Geese, this was another bird that I really hoped I would see, but like the Yellowhammers I presumed it would be a distant sighting at the best.

 But no, I was wrong again ! Before Sue and I had even gone on to the reserve when we arrived on Thursday afternoon, one of the brilliant knowledgeable staff members showed us around the accommodation and as we went in to the conservatory that looks out over the Folly Pond, there was the Green-winged Teal just feet away !

 

It's very easy to see why it can get 'lost' amongst the other more common Eurasian Teal, especially at a distance, so below I've added 'extra large' snaps of both a male Eurasian and the lone male Green-winged Teals for comparison..........

 

 

common male Eurasian Teal....

male Green-winged Teal....

 Yet again the wonderful WWT staff filled us in on a few details. They think this is the same bird that was blown off course a few years ago but chose to hang around. In North America this Teal is as common as our UK Eurasian Teal. Yet this male has appeared again and spends most of it's time in a particular corner of the Folly Pond. But, as Sue and I discovered, at around 4.30-6.30pm every afternoon it comes very close to the shore line right outside the heated conservatory of the farmhouse accommodation.

 

So with us staying on site, could things really get any better ? Yes they could.

 

The other major thing I took into consideration when researching my stay at WWT Caerlaverock was the guaranteed views of Badgers feeding from the comfort of the farmhouse cottage own conservatory. And yes, they were as obliging as the website promised......

 

The only downfall is that you cannot get a good quality sharp photo. Obviously it's pitch black when the Badgers decide to come out for a treat. The feeding area is discreetly lit up but the conservatory windows are double glazed. But to be honest Sue and I didn't really care. The thrill of seeing a wild Badger feeding just a few feet away was fantastic. The only Badgers I generally see are the poor road kill victims on the side of major A roads or motorways, or the captive few at the British Wildlife Centre. I think when people ask me what was my best experience of my stay at Caervaerlock it will be the memory of watching Badgers with a glass of wine in my hand and in the comfort of a heated conservatory.

 

The Badgers are so lovingly predictable that the reserve is allowing paying public to view them every evening from 6th - 19th April (full details here)

 

Sue and I stayed on site for four nights and for the first couple of evenings we didn't even try to attempt to photograph the Badgers but on our last two nights we started to experiment with our DSLR camera settings. If you turn off your flash and use a short lens (50mm) and stand directly in line with the Badger through the double glazed windows, you can just about get a half way decent photo. None of my mine below are going to win any wildlife photography awards but I don't care, it was the experience that made it for me.

 

 

 

 

Our last evening in the conservatory was the best. By 3pm it was dark, cold and overcast so we settled ourselves in the conservatory with hot mugs of coffee. We watched the WWT staff come along and hide peanuts under the stones and tree trunks for the Badgers to find later, along with honey smeared across the tops of the trunks. Not long after that the Green-winged Teal came over from out of nowhere and fed off the shore line. By this time the wind was blowing a real hooley.

 Just before 6pm a Hare appeared on the path on the left hand side and made its way towards the Folly Hide. As Sue and I were used to seeing the Badgers emerging from the same direction as the Hare we were not prepared when three Badgers suddenly appeared from the right hand side instead. We stayed in the conservatory until past 11pm and were treated to two more single Badger sightings plus a Tawny Owl calling when we popped out in to the courtyard.

 

During my stay I'm fairly certain I heard Little Owls calling too, but just off the reserve by the farm buildings and dirt track that leads you up to the centre.

 

As my regular blog followers know, I love to look at mammal tracks, so here's a few of both Badger and Roe Deer..... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and now I'm developing a taste for pellets, not literally tasting them of course, but finding them and breaking them open and seeing what's inside.

 Sue first alerted me to these weird coloured ones which were numerous in the 'avenue' heading towards Avenue Tower.....

about 2 inches long...

 

tiny fragments of bone plus lots of grass and grain....no odour at all

 

After breaking a couple open and finding tiny bones, plus grass and grain, but no fur, I took some to the front desk at the Information Centre. It turns out they are Carrion Crow pellets and the brilliant informative staff member even took the time to produce a book that showed the differences in sizes and colour of pellets that are bought up by Rooks compared to Carrion Crows. The same wonderful staff member then took me to a site where Barn Owls are roosting on site and let me take away a perfectly formed Barn Owl pellet....

 

Roughly 3.5 inches long....

 

completely matted with fur....

 

rib cage bones showing....

jaw bone of a mouse or possible similar sized vole ?

 

It was fascinating breaking it apart and comparing it to the Crow pellet which had no fur in it, yet the Barn Owls pellet was practically held together with fur.

Another 'great experience' for me courtesy of WWT Caervaerlock.

 

So what can I say about my visit to WWT Caervaerlock ? It was all the better for staying on site.

 I absolutely loved it. Four nights wasn't enough for me, I could have happily stayed a week. Unlike WWT London, this centre isn't geared towards families, it focuses on the wildlife that we all want to see in the selective season. I doubt if families with young children will find anything interesting on site to keep the youngsters amused for more than a day, but for people like Sue and I who don't just bird watch but have a genuine interest in all things wild, this place is a haven.

 

Within the next few days (hopefully) the resident Ospreys will be returning from their winter holiday in Africa, the Whooper Swans will leave to go to their nesting grounds as will the Barnacle Geese.

 

And I will certainly be coming back too.

 

Thank you so much WWT Caerlaverock. I had a fantastic time.