Excellent butterfly count at Cranford Park

I had a great butterfly transect at Cranford Park yesterday which made up for my camera not being very good and not focusing correctly

230 butterflies of 14 species during a transect that started at 1100 and finished at 1245

Small Skipper x 8
Essex Skipper x 2
Small/Essex Skipper x 48 (combined because I was not close enough to confirm id)
Large Skipper x 6
Large White x 27
Small White x 7
Red Admiral x 4
Painted Lady x 2
Comma x 2
Speckled Wood x 9
Marbled White x 1
Gatekeeper x 40
Meadow Brown x 61
Ringlet x 13

The Marbled White was a lovely surprise - I have never recorded one at Cranford Park although I know they have been recorded there before - sadly no photos as it was a fly past

The Ringlet numbers were also a very pleasant surprise - I normally only see one or two so to have 13 actually on my transect route was brilliant and they were all in one concentrated area

mating Large Whites

Meadow Brown

Ringlet

Ringlet

Ringlet

Red Admiral underwing

Red Admiral underwing

Small Skipper

 

Small Skipper

 

Large White

 

Cinnabar moth caterpillars

Below is the actual route I take every time I do the UKBMS transect - I start at the beginning of the yellow line which is behind the woods by the M4 wall and I finish by the stone bridge at the entrance to the park - each coloured line is a 'section' and I record how many butterflies I see in each section

 

 

Below is my actual recording sheet from yesterday - I use the 'five bar gate' method to mark off the numbers I see - section 5 is always majorly busy in July so I do my count at the bottom of the page and total it up at the end of the transect

 

 After the transect I loitered around the wildlife pond in front of the Information Centre - the pond has established really well with two species of damselfly and a lone Broad Bodied Chaser - these Common Blue damselflies were working hard to ensure there will be a next generation

 

 

There are some good size Freshwater Snails too

 

There was a survey recently on the newts in the pond - they are all Common Newts - I amused myself for over an hour trying to second guess where they would pop up for a bubble of air - sorry about the dreadful photos but they were a delight to watch

 

Another fantastic visit and good resulting transect

 

On Saturday July 13th I will be leading my third Butterfly walk and talk - meet at 1100 at the Information Centre - children are more than welcome