On Saturday my Mum joined me for my weekly UKBMS butterfly transect. She was planning on doing some foraging at the same time, but I must admit we spent most of the time gossiping. Therefore hardly any photos taken by me whilst Mum walked away with a huge bag of heritage apples and a decent sized haul of Sloe berries. There are still some blackberries out but most of the bramble bushes are bare now, as is the mulberry bush in it's secret location.
It wasn't a great butterfly count either. I know the season is starting to draw to a close but I would have expected a greater total count than I got....
Saturdays tally..
29 butterflies / 9 species
Large White x 6
Green-veined White x 1
Small Copper x 5
Red Admiral x 1
Comma x 3
Speckled Wood x 1
Gatekeeper x 2
Meadow Brown x 8
Small Heath x 2
I normally see one or two Small Coppers about twice a year so to have five sighting in the space of an hour was quite unusual for me. This little darling is a very common and widespread species, so maybe it's just a good year for them. They are one of the first butterflies to suffer if our summer is wet and cold. Their food plant is the Common and Sheeps Sorrel and the males are highly territorial, often chasing away other butterfly species as well as their own.....
Mum and I also had a lovely close up view of one of the juvenile Kestrels that are still loitering around the meadows....
Sunday saw me back at Cranford Park with a mission.......to find and photograph as many bees as I could for my friends little boy, Oscar, who absolutely loves them.
I failed dismally. Just one species (or two if you include the Honeybee). The below is the Common Carder bee with it's lovely fluffy orange 'vest'.....
Sorry Oscar ! Maybe next weekend I'll find some more for you.
I was hoping to see some hoverflies, but again failed dismally, with just one species seen......
the huge Volucella zonaria, the Hornet mimic. There were plenty of them though. I ended up counting over 17 on two neighbouring buddleias.....
There were some more butterflies to be seen, as to be expected on a warm late summers day. Several Small Heath were fluttering on the edges of the grass paths through the meadows, though this species does seem to be more prolific in just one area of Cranford Park this year......
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| Small Heath |
And there were another three Small Coppers in the meadows again like yesterday.....
The high-light of Sunday though was a Red Kite. These are regularly seen soaring over the park, sometimes in pairs, but in over fifteen years of going to Cranford Park I have only ever seen them perched in trees on three occasions. Today would be the best fourth sighting ever.
I followed this very tatty bird as it soared overhead then watched in disbelief as it landed on one of the tallest trees in Cranford Woods, giving me outstanding views.....
During this time I hope no one was watching me !! I was doing a kind of shuffle to try to get nearer to the bird without spooking it. This involved shuffling along a hedge line to stay out of the birds sight, and often walking backwards very very slowly, and only narrowly stopping myself falling in to a patch of nettles. But it was all worth it. There was a second bird soaring overhead and the photos below captures the soaring bird on the left and the perched bird on the right......
I think this is a juvenile Red Kite on its first moult for two reasons. Adult Kites general have bright yellow eyes, juveniles have whitish grey eyes. If you zoom in on my pics you can see the bird does not have yellow eyes. Also juveniles tend to be look a bit 'washed out' compared to the adults. But feel free to correct me.
So not too many photos from the park this weekend, and no visible migrating birds like the Whinchats, Stonechats and Spotted Flycatchers that I generally see, but maybe next weekend will bring in something nice.
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