Dragons and Tigers and Kings and more at Cranford Park today

There was a touch of autumn in the air this lunchtime at Cranford Park - this was reflected in todays butterfly count on the UKBMS transect - just 59 butterflies of 6 species - full list and photos later on

 

It has been a good year for dragonflies and darters - often when I'm walking the transect I see these flying around me but rarely do they settle long enough for me to get a photo

 

I was in luck several times today - they were perching all over the place - darters are not my strong point but I think these are all Common Darters

 

 

and I think the ones below are all Migrant Hawkers

 

but I'm happy to be corrected

 

Other little critters included this very well camouflaged Green Shield bug

 

 

and just two hoverfly species - the common tiny Episyrphus balteatus

 

 

and the huge Volucella inanis

 

The butterfly count tally was -

10 x Large Whites

3 x Small Copper

26 x Holly Blue

2 x Comma

16 x Speckled Wood

2 x Meadow Brown

 

Holly Blue

Speckled Wood

Speckled Wood

 

very tatty old Comma

 and an added bonus was a rather scruffy Jersey Tiger moth - my fourth seen at Cranford Park this season - there have been hundreds of reports of these stunning looking day flying moths all over the Greater London area this year - what the experts call an 'influx'

 

 

Section two of my transect takes me through the top end of the woods and for the last week I've heard a raptor of some sort calling - yesterday I managed to see it for long enough to identify it as a juvenile Sparrowhawk and managed to get one very poor photo before it spotted me and flew off

 

 

today I could still hear the juveniles calling but couldn't even see them let alone get a photo

 

These masters of hunting always seem to nest in the same area of the woods so it was nice to see them this August just as I did the last three Augusts - and it was also nice to confirm we do have some birds of prey breeding at Cranford Park after the sad conclusion that the Kestrels haven't bred this year

 

It was nice to see some patches of Lords and Ladies have survived to the berry stage of their season - normally these have been eaten by Wood mice or trampled by dogs

 

My transect route ends by the river at the stone bridge and as I was preparing to put away my clipboard a flash of blue darted past me - the Kingfisher

 

From following this bird in previous years I know one or two of its favourite perches and that's exactly where I found it a few minutes later - unfortunately I still had my macro lens on my camera and could only manage a record short through the foliage before the bird took off again - look carefully at the centre of the photos below - that's a Kingfisher - honestly !