Yesterday (Friday) saw me at Cranford CP by 9am to hopefully catch up with the Bullfinches - but despite loitering nearby for over an hour I didn't see or hear any sign of them
As the temperature was looking to get fairly high I decided to complete the UKBMS transect whilst it was still quite cool - 19degrees is plenty comfortable for me when I'm carrying a rucksack along with my heavy macro lens camera and making notes on my clipboard
The butterfly transect was my highest count of the year so far;-
119 butterflies of 9 species seen during a 1hr 50min leisurely walk around the set route
The tally was:-
Large White x 6
Small Skipper x 13
Essex Skipper x 4
Large Skipper x 8
Red Admiral x 2
Comma x 1
Speckled Wood x 3
and the best counts -----
Meadow Brown x 59
Small Heath x 23
Cranford CP is becoming a well known site for its good numbers of the large Meadow Browns - the majority of yesterdays count were within the cattle paddock so it will be interesting to see if their numbers will get bigger or smaller next year
Small Heath are fairly widespread and common down south but around the Greater London area they can only be found in certain pockets - so to count 23 of the small little beauties was a bonus
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| Meadow Brown - female |
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| Meadow Brown with complete wing closure so no eye spots to be seen |
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| Small Heath - about half the size of the Meadow Brown but fairly similar in appearance - Small Heath fly very low to the ground and when they do stop to perch on a flower it very rarely opens its wings |
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| Large Skipper - male |
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| Small Skipper - male |
As to be expected on a sunny June day there were a few hoverflies around - the only one that would pose long enoough for a photo was this fresh looking Myathropa florea - this common hoverfly is also known as the 'Batman' hover due to the distinctive batman shaped logo on the back of its thorax
Ragwort is springing up all over the park now and the Cinnabar caterpillars can be found if you look really closely at the flowers and buds - I managed to find one plant that showed the differences in sizes between newly hatched caterpillars and one that is about a week old
When they have gorged themselves and grown fat and long they will drop to the ground and bury themselves about 2-3 cms under the surface - there they will pupate and spend the winter and emerge as the stunning black and red day flying adult moths the following spring
Not too many ladybirds seen yesterday but I got the back end of a 7-spot as it went head first after aphids
At the back of the stable block someone had spilt a lot of seed (?) and it had enticed out a very young Grey Squirrel - this baby was a good third of a size smaller than an adult
The resident Kestrels young are due to fledge around early-mid July if previous records prove correct - the male was the only one seen on Friday and I'm hoping it is because the female is still attending the nestlings - as always the male had chosen one of the tree guards to perch upon which is a very favoured spot to look for prey - he caught a dragonfly whilst I watched him and instead of taking it to the nest he ate it himself
After the transect I went back to the Bullfinch area but even though I stayed there for another hour there was still no sign of either the male nor female - I'm not sure what this means but I will continue to monitor the area when I can
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