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