Wino Wendys Wildlife World : Painted Ladies at Cranford Park

Friday, 28 June 2019

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

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