The Cranford Park Little Owls have always been hard to find - normally I wait until I hear them before even attempting to look
Today was one of those days - the alarm call of an adult had me heading over to the oaks and when the juvenile started hissing out came my binoculars for a good scan of the branches - it took me an hour but I eventually found one juvenile
Can you see it ?
Heavily cropped and lightened photo below
Shortly after I managed this dreadful shot the owl moved deeper into cover and although I could still hear it hissing I could not find it
I didn't have much more luck with a Nuthatch that appeared whilst I was sitting in shade - it too stayed in the shade so the only two halfway decent photos I got were more like silhouettes
Even the Red Kites weren't obliging today - there were two soaring very low down over the cattle paddock - one even settled very briefly on one of the fence posts - but by the time I got my camera in focus they were off again
Luckily for me the insects were much more photogenic - there were lots of Six-spot Burnets out today
the male Broad-bodied Chaser was still guarding the wildlife pond by the Information Centre
In the below photo there are actually two Small White butterflies
The female on the leaf is flicking it's abdomen at the other one which is just out of focus - she's basically telling him she is not interested in mating - the equivalent of 'not tonight darling I have a headache'
Todays butterfly transect was a huge success - see the tally below
234 butterflies of 10 species seen over 2 hours on the usual transect route (compared to 119 of 9 species seen on 22nd June)
44 x Small Skippers
20 x Essex Skippers
27 x Large White
24 x Small White
8 x Holly Blue
20 x Small Copper
11 x Peacock
6 x Speckled Wood
35 x Gatekeeper
39 x Meadow Brown
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| Meadow Brown |
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| Gatekeeper - male |
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| Gatekeeper - male |
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| Gatekeeper - male |
The success story for me though were the large numbers of Small Coppers - if I find one I get excited so to have 20 on the transect was lovely to see - I found even more after the I had completed the transect so it really must be a very good year for them
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| Small Coppers are well known to have different 'forms' - this one has larger black spots on the upper wing and small blue dots on the lower wing - this isn't the first time I have seen this aberration on Small Coppers at Cranford Park |
The Skippers were out in force today - both Small and Essex - all of my photos below are of the Essex with it's distinctive black tips on the antennae
There were hundreds of Cinnabar moth caterpillars still - the ragwort is slowly being completely stripped
It was incredibly warm at the park today and I must admit I was happy to sit in the shade for ages just listening to the Little Owls
Hopefully when I go back in a few days the weather will be cooler and allow me to have more of a walk around
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