Dreary weather day at Cranford Park

 

Yesterday was a dreary day at Cranford Park. I held out until 11am to do my UKBMS butterfly transect but even with the sun occasionally peeking through the transect was very quiet and quite chilly. Final result was just one butterfly, a Speckled Wood, during the whole 75 minute walk.

 

In the wood circle the Cuckoo Flowers (aka Lady's Smock) are just going over leaving these wonderful delicate seed heads.....

 

I counted three species of bee on the patch today.....

Red-tailed bumblebee

Common carder bee

Tawny mining bee

And three species of ladybird.....

The first two are Harlequins.....

 

 

there were several teeny tiny 14-spots.....

 

and by the river there was just one Horse Chestnut tree whose under leaves were covered in Orange ladybirds (the same tree where I counted 22 Oranges a couple of weeks back).

 

The first Nettle Tap macro moths were out in force. When I say macro I mean these little things are the size of my little finger nail.....

 

Plenty of Dock bugs around again. They seem more docile during cold snaps and you can get some good close ups......

 

 

Also abundant were the common Green Shield Bugs......

 

The cool weather also made the Scorpion Flies less flighty and I managed to get a different angle of this female below.....

 

 

Two hoverfly shots from this dreary day.

A stunning Dasysyrphus albostriatus, my first for the year......

 

 

and my second ever Baccha elongata......

 

The weather may have been cool but that didn't stop the ardour of these St Mark's flies.....

 

 

I also recorded my first ever weevil sighting at Cranford Park.

Apparently this is Liophloeurs lessulatus.....

It was quite chunky and the size of my thumb nail....

 

Again like last week, I spent some time looking for signs of birds nesting and again no luck with any woodpeckers except for one calling male Great Spotted Woodpecker.

The Skylarks are back in the meadow, with at least two heard singing as they helicoptered up in to the sky. I also saw twelve Linnets and five Goldfinches in the same area.

There's a Stock Dove nest in one of the oak tree hollows by the wood circle, and I saw a Mistle Thrush taking nesting material up in to the same tree.

The highlight of my day though was hearing a very close Buzzard 'mewing' and looked up to see one sitting just two trees away from me. Despite some very quiet slow movements from me, it didn't stay perched for long and took off joining two more that I hadn't spotted soaring on the thermals. So I think I can safely say for the second year running Cranford Park has successfully had the Common Buzzard nesting on site.

The day wasn't a complete loss even though I would have expected warmer weather at this time of year.