Little Owl overload at Cranford Park

Yesterday I had heard 'hissing' from one of the oak trees, but hadn't been able to see anything, so I was back at the park at 7.30am this morning and within fifteen minutes I had found my first juvenile Little Owl of the year.

A quick text message to Sue, she rushed down and we spent the next 90 minutes watching one adult and at least two juveniles sunbathing, sleeping and flying from oak to oak.....

 

 

and one photo of the adult...

 

Last year their nest tree came down during a storm. I only saw brief glimpses of two adults in Cranford Woods after that, and we had no juveniles out in the oaks. This year Sue discovered their new nest tree so we were just waiting for the familiar 'hissing' sound that tells us the newly fledged owlets are out and about. Luckily for us that was today.

 

After Sue left I had a wander around. There are even more Large Skippers in the Headland area, and again they were nearly all males....

 

 

Patches of Ragwort are starting to flower now and on one I found some tiny Cinnabar moth caterpillars. Give it a couple of weeks and these caterpillars will each be a couple of inches long and the plant will be stripped bare....

 

 

There are still quite a few shiny handsome Thick-legged Flower Beetles about....

 

and a first for me, a nymph Conehead....

 

 

Also in the Headland area the Common Whitethroats have got new fledglings too. The adults are looking particularly tatty but the juveniles look lovely and fresh. Despite trying for some time, I couldn't get a photo though.

 

The bramble and nettle scrub at the back of the stable blocks always has something nice to photograph. Today it was this weird thing.....

 

 

The black bit attached to the leaf is the remains of a Harlequin ladybird pupae, but I'm not 100% sure that the yellow thing is a new fresh Harlequin. I've posted the photos to a couple of facebook id pages and will edit this blog when I get some answers.

 

Update - the above is actually a Harlequin ladybird larvae pupating. Thanks to everyone on the Ladybirds UK and Insects of Great Britain facebook pages.