Nest building, birds mating and more at Cranford Park today

Yesterdays visit to the park was fairly short mainly due to the cold biting wind. Todays visit was much longer due to the great yellow globe being out for most of the day, and barely any breeze at all. I had to make the most of it as I'm back at work tomorrow and according to the forecast we have another cold spell heading our way for Easter.

 

I always loiter around the Headland area of the park. It's a good raptor spotting place combined with a scrubby habitat that attracts Whitethroats in late spring. Todays 'spot' though was observing a pair of Long-tailed Tits nest building, something I hope to see every March. It was hard work through the tangle of branches but I managed a fairly reasonable photo of the nest and then a bad photo of one of the birds on the nest.....

 

That mossy structure in the middle of the photo is a half constructed Long-tailed Tits nest

Look carefully and you can see an out of focus Long-tailed Tit on top of the nest

 Sorry for the dreadful photos but nest building was in progress and I didn't want to linger in case I disturbed the birds.

 

I saw two Common Buzzards today, both soaring low over last years nest tree in the woods. I'm hoping this is a sign they have chosen the same place to nest this year. One got mobbed by various corvids as it went over...

 

 

At last there is some Lesser Celandine in flower. By next week there should be carpets of these lovely yellow star flowers over the woodland floor....

 

 

By the stable block the resident Honeybees from both hives were very active, compared to yesterday when the wild hives were very dormant. Quite a few of the bees were coming down to the muddy puddles to presumably drink....

 

I had my second butterfly of the year today, and it settled long enough for a photo. A tatty Comma which had hibernated over winter somewhere safe and warm.....

 

 

Everyone knows my favourites bird of prey is the Kestrel, and I always look out for the resident pair when I visit Cranford Park. Today was my lucky day.....

I saw the female several times and was just watching her glide across the scrub when I realised the male was following her. Too late for me to lift my camera but I saw them mate on the outskirts of the woods, not once but twice...

 

Very bad photo of both male and female Kestrel just after mating for the second time

Male on the left, female on the right

the male in mid preen after mating

This is only the second time in my life that I've witnessed the Kestrels mating, I'm just gutted I didn't manage to photograph it. About an hour later I saw them again mating a few trees down from the first one and again I didn't have my camera ready. But it's nice to confirm we will be having juvenile Kestrels learning in the meadow again this summer, or to pinch a phrase from my mate Tony, another season of 'Kestrel Academy'......

 

The below information is pinched from the RSPB website 'The Kestrels year'..

 

The timing of egg laying is dependent on the weather, but the female normally lays her clutch of 3-6 eggs in late April or early May. She is only able to produce eggs if she can get enough food. In years when vole numbers are low, many kestrels fail to nest at all.

The female lays the eggs at two-day intervals, and usually starts to incubate as she lays the third egg. Incubation takes 27-29 days per egg, which hatch over a period of a few days. The chicks require constant brooding for the first 10-14 days, after which they are able to control their own body temperature. 

The male provides the female and the chicks with food throughout the nesting period. The female will only hunt if food is short, risking the loss of eggs or young chicks. Only as the young get bigger, can she safely start to hunt close to the nest.

The chicks fledge gradually when they are around four weeks old. They explore increasing distances from the nest, but return to it to roost for another couple of weeks. Adults continue to feed the young for a month after fledging, during which time they will learn to catch their own food. 

Unusually for birds of prey, there is no aggression between the chicks, which tend to fly, perch and roost together even for some time after fledging.

Other birds feeling the love today were many Ring-necked Parakeets. I saw several pairs mating and more pairs checking out nesting holes...

 

 

 

The pair I was observing a few weeks ago in Bluebell Dell appear to have abandoned the nest hole, there was no activity from there at all today.

 

There were signs of more pairing up at the wildlife pond. A pair of Song Thrush, a pair of Robins and a pair of Great Tits were very visible.

The Song Thrushes in particular gave me a good show today, so long as I was quiet and didn't move about too much. One perched territorially at the edge of the pond copse....

 

 

whilst it's mate found a snail and beat it on a handy stone on the ponds edge....

 

Sorry for the fence being in the photo but he/she was just the other side of the pond to where I was standing. After devouring it's snail lunch the Song Thrush then took advantage of the warm sun to lay down on the bare soil....

 

Some say this is to entice any fleas or mites to come to the surface of the feathers so the Thrush can pick them off, others say by laying on the ground the bird allows ants to move through the feathers. The formic acid produced by the ants is said to repel mites. Either way, it made for a nice photo opportunity.

The resident Robins watched from the pond copse.....

 

Work is still ongoing at the south end of the park where the eight cattle will spend the summer. According to the contractors the new fence should be finished by the end of next week.

 

I spoke to lots of dog walkers today who all expressed their own opinions on having the cattle graze for the summer. The majority are not convinced it's a good idea, but it's too late to stop it now so we can only wait and see what happens as the months go on. Many of the dog owners expressed concern that they weren't aware any cattle were being moved on to the park until they saw the contractors and machinery. Bob Barton replied to my blog post yesterday saying the plans were discussed at Cranford Park Friends meetings in November 2017 and February 2018. I receive the minutes by email but even I didn't realise the extent of the plans and I'm guessing a lot must have been organised behind the scenes for this project.

 

It was a truly beautiful day though with plenty to see, photograph and observe. I would have stayed much longer than the four hours I did, but I needed the loo, and as the Information Centre is still closed to the public I was forced to head home. The Info Centre might as well be re-named as it's certainly not what it used to be. I've heard it's only open to the volunteers at the park, which seems a bit strange to me as they're not at the park twice a day like the dog walkers or even twice a week like myself. Anyway, that's another gripe for me and no doubt one that will eventually be addressed.