Another mild day at Cranford Park

I've been home bound for the last couple of days, and today I needed fresh air and a bit of exercise.

A trip to Cranford Park was what the doctor ordered.

It was incredibly mild again. The sun was out, birds were singing, and other parts of the park have been fooled into thinking spring has come early......

 

I found a patch of white dead-nettle in flower. They can tolerate cold weather but their usual flowering season is early March-early November. Either way this little patch is either late or early....

 

 

The old magnolia by the haha wall is in bud. This isn't necessarily early though, magnolias do tend to flower before most of our other spring flowering shrubs....

 

 

There were plenty of Robins singing and declaring their territories....

 

And the wild bee hive is still going strong. I got a better photo of it today. There are two distinct combs (bottom of the hollow) and the 'blob's in the middle of the hollow are Honey Bees....

 

More Ring-necked Parakeets are now in nesting holes. As I mentioned on my last blog post, this could be a good thing for our Woodpeckers. Hopefully the marmite parakeets will breed nice and early and evacuate the nest holes before the woodpeckers start breeding. As I also mentioned in my last post, both the parakeets and woodpeckers have survived side by side in Cranford Woods for several years now. There are plenty of old dead trees for both species to nest in....

 

 

The female below was in the nest hole to the right when I first walked past. On seeing me she came out and sat nearby....

 

The Great Spotted Woodpeckers were very active today. They were quite high in the trees which didn't bode well for any great photos, and several were calling. I even heard one drumming - a sound I normally hear in February and March......

 

 

By the iron bridge there were three GSWs all together at the top of one tree. I couldn't get a photo, too many twigs and branches in the way. Eventually one was chased off by the other two.

 

Amongst all of the singing birds I occasionally picked out a Goldcrest and was thrilled when one landed right in front of me. Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough with the camera and only got a photo of it's bum as it started to fly off....

 

 

I saw lots of Redwings moving through the woods today, and heard a few Fieldfares, but failed to get photos of any of them. There are still lots of bushes with berries on them in the woods, including the Holly below....

 

 

Whilst there is still a good food supply the winter Thrushes will hang around, despite being frequently chased off by resident birds such as our Blackbirds and Robins.

 

I found some new fruiting fungi today (don't think I've ever said that in December before).

I think the one below is the starting of a new patch of Turkeys Tails.....

 

I have no idea what this one below is, but it wasn't there last week. It's growing half way up a small tree by the River Crane just before the iron bridge.....

 

and I think the one below is 'Orange Cup' fungi. It was very small and I had to use my macro lens to get a decent shot....

 

 

I checked the sites of some of the fungi I found on the 20th December.

The 'Candlesnuff' fungi has got a little taller.....

 

The brilliantly named 'Dead Mans Fingers' have grown some more digits....

 

and my favourite 'Stagshorn' has grown a bigger 'antler'.....

 

 

The beautifully marked 'Turkeys Tails' around the wood circle are expanding....

The water levels on the River Crane have dropped, and as predicted last week, the Little Grebe is back though I could only find one of them today and getting a photo meant staking it out for quite some time.....

 

Not only was the Grebe shy and elusive, so was the resident Little Egret. This was the only photo I could manage before a jogger spooked it and it flew out of view.....

 

I now have proof that the parks Grey Squirrels cannot read......!

 

It was a very pleasant couple of hours. Also seen but not photographed (along with the Redwings, Fieldfares and Goldcrests) were a Kestrel, Sparrowhawk, Goldfinch, Mistle Thrush, Song Thrush, Green Woodpecker, Grey Heron and Kingfisher. Not bad for a brief two hour visit.