Overdue visit to Cranford CP

For various reasons I havent been to Cranford Park for a while but with the last few warm days of September here I had to pay a visit

 

There were plenty of birds to see but none that stood still long enough for my camera to focus on - I spotted three Common Buzzards - two Red Kite - two Kingfishers - nice size mixed flock of Long-tailed and Blue Tits - Great Spotted Woodpecker - two Kestrels

 

The insects and critters were much more obliging on this warm autumnal day - first up was this small stunning Hawthorn Shieldbug

 

 

There were a few butterflies about - my last UKBMS transect will be in about two weeks time and that will be it for this year - I will do a blog covering the species seen this season nearer the time

 

Large White

Red Admiral underwing

Peacock

 I saw more Ladybirds today than I did during the heatwave - the majority were 7-spots but there was the odd Harlequin around too

 

7-spot

7-spot

Harleqiun - note the brown legs - a good id feature for these non native bugs

Harlequin larva

Not too many hoverflies around and the only species I could find was feeding on flowering ivy - the Batman hoverfly - Myathropa Florea

 

 

The warm still day meant there were lots of dragonflies around - this is one of the Hawker speices probably a Southern Hawker

 

and there were plenty of Common Darters all over the park

 

The little critter below was only about an inch long - it's one of the Conehead species

 

 

 There were still some Oak galls visible - the tiny pinholes you can see are where the parasitic wasp has burrowed out of the gall after spending the first part of its life inside it as a grub

 

The high-light of my visit though was finding a fourth colony of Ivy Bees - I found my first colony two years ago by the orchard - this fourth colony is much smaller and was by the river

 

 

These attractive bees are a little larger than our common Honey Bees - and with much more brighter yellowy orange and black bands - they were first recorded in the UK in 2001 in Dorset and have since spread pretty much all over Britain - In 2001 the BWARS (Bees Wasps and Ants Recording Scheme) strated monitoring sites where they were spotted and they continue to ask for any sightings to be submitted

 

The flight period for this lovely little bee coincides with when our common ivy comes into flower so they are normally seen early September to late October - it is well worth checking any patch of flowering ivy no matter how big or small it is

 

link to Bwars monitoring scheme