Painted Ladies at Cranford Park

I attempted to do my UKBMS butterfly transect at Cranford Park yesterday but even though the sun was out the whole time I was there - the wind was often strong and cold

 

I know I would have got a better count had the wind not been so chilly but it wasn't a bad 90 minute walk and count

 

Small Skipper x 12

Essex Skipper x 2

Large Skipper x 1

Large White x 8

Red Admiral x 1

Comma x 4

Meadow Brown x 39

Small Heath x 6

 

and the two highlights of my day

Ringlet x 2

Painted Lady x 4

 

Total of 81 butterflies of 10 species

 

This is my second only ever record of Ringlet at Cranford Park so I was very pleased with them

 

I was half expecting to see a Painted Lady considering they are popping up everywhere over the UK at the moment - we seem to be under a Painted Lady influx

 

Again this is only the second time I have recorded a Painted Lady at Cranford Park

 

Red Admiral underwing

Red Admiral

Comma

Essex Skipper

 

Ringlet

 

Painted Lady

Painted Lady

Painted Lady

 

Painted Lady

It was incredibly difficult trying to photograph them though because of the wind and the only place I saw all four were along the wall between the back of the stable blocks and the apple orchard where they were feeding on bramble and buddlia and it was more sheltered

 

Also found on many nettle patches were hundreds of Peacock caterpillars

 

 

And on the Ragwort in the meadows there were lots of Cinnabar moth caterpillars

 

In amongst the bramble leaves there were plenty of Harlequin ladybird larvae

 

 

and the next stage pupae - this one was in defensive mode and flicking up its body - maybe it didn't like its photo being taken

As to be expected at this time of year there were plenty of hoverflies although I only managed to badly photograph three species but that's enough to show how variable hovers can be

Syrphus species

Volucella pellucens

 

Sphaerophoria interrupta

So a nice but windy walk around and chuffed to record Painted Ladies on the transect

 

 

Black and yellow Longhorn beetle

The urban Kes 'des res'

I popped back to the urban Kestrels nest site this morning

 

I had been thinking about their nest site - it must be ideal for them - the window has been boarded up from the inside so total privacy - some of the window panes are broken so easy access - and some of the panes are intact so shelter from wind and rain - a perfect 'des res' for a Kes !

 

There were two of them huddled together when I first arrived

 

 

But one of them appeared to be more active than the other two (there are definitely three juveniles)

 

Proof below that there are three juveniles - I think this has got to be my favourite image from today

 

The more active chick was investigating every perch

 

and all the youngsters spent a long time preening

 

The active one was seen running across the middle shelf several times

The image below was captured as a Red Kite soared behind me - they watched it intently until it soared out of view

 



 

The sequence below are of when the adult male bought in some food - he is the orangey blur in the bottom left hand corner

 

Whatever prey he had he deposited it inside the bottom broken pane and flew away

 

After the 'lunch break' the active one started stretching it's wings again and I watched whilst holding my breath as he appeared to fall out of the window and land on the brickwork

 

 

 

But he managed to right himself and get back in via the bottom broken pane

 

I only left because I was meeting a few of the other volunteers at Cranford CP today - we were being interviewed by a couple of media students from Uxbridge College - this is for a short promotional video about Cranford CP and I cannot wait to see what how it comes out

The urban Kestrels

This morning I had to collect a parcel from my local Royal Mail depot - there is an old building next to it where I've known Kestrels have nested in for years but until today I've not known exactly where in the building

 

One of the juveniles was calling so I was able to pinpoint where they were and looking at the amount of poop around the bottom of the round window this is definitely their nest

 

 

I counted three juveniles but there could have been a fourth - I was really hoping they would all line up for me but that was just wishful thinking and rain stopped me from watching them for longer

 

They look quite close to fledging but I'm hoping they'll still be there for next couple of days so I can get some better pics