The start of autumn migration at Cranford Park and a bit from the Lockdown Loftroon

I was at Cranford Park yesterday primarily to do the UKBMS butterfly count, but also to see what was around. Late August is always good for migratory birds at Cranford Park and I hit the jackpot twice yesterday, but first back to the butterflies. 

I had a healthy count and species numbers were about average for this time of year …. 

26/08/2020

Large White x 9

Small White x 3

Small Copper x 3

Brown Argus x 1 (first of the year)

Holly Blue x 3

Red Admiral x 5

Speckled Wood x 3

Gatekeeper x 3

Meadow Brown x 10

Small Heath x 3

Large White

Red Admiral

In the cattle paddock and meadow I was really chuffed to spot two Whinchats and a solo Wheatear. 

Whinchats don't breed at the park but I often see them during early autumn as they stop over to feed up before continuing their journey to central or southern Africa to spend the winter. They spend the summer breeding in northern and western Britain where there are more suitable habitats. 

Wheatears also spend the winter in Africa and just like the Whinchat, I have seen them before at Cranford Park during early autumn. They are slightly bigger than Whinchats but just as attractive. 

out of focus Wheatear at the back and Whinchat at the front

Whinchat

Whinchat

Whinchat - female

Whinchat

Whinchat

Whinchat in typical 'topping' mode

Whinchat

Wheatear - female

Wheatear

Wheatear

Wheatear

Wheatear

The girls in the cattle paddock, as usual, showed little interest in what I was doing … 

and they are often followed around by a flock of Starlings. This young juvenile below stood out from the rest with it's very pale colouring … 

Elsewhere in the park there were plenty of Southern and Migrant Hawkers, and lots of Common Darters, including the one below that not only posed for me at eye level but also allowed me to get quite close … 

Some of the young Oaks dotted around the park already have acorns affected by the Knopper Gall Wasp. These tiny wasps lay their eggs inside very young growing acorns and the grubs feed inside. You can tell easily an affected acorn, but they don't really do too much harm to the tree in general. In early August the acorn is red, ridged and sticky and eventually turns brown and hard. 

Another tiny wasp that likes Oaks is the equally tiny Common Spangle gall wasp, and they've caused these red raised circles on the underside of this oak leaf. A single leaf can hold as many as 100 galls and even when they have fallen to the floor, the larvae continue to develop throughout the winter and emerge as adults in April … 

The huge Sweet Chestnut tree near the carpark is absolutely laden with fruit now, and looks spectacular …. 

In the woods I found my first fungi of the season. I think this is one of the Oyster mushrooms but I'm not 100% convinced … 

One of the young female Kestrels was loitering by the Information Centre and completely unconcerned by me pointing my camera at her …  

Back at the Lockdown Loftroom, there have been a couple of juvenile Red Kites hanging about the tall trees at the back of the field. They're not easy to photograph due to the distance but can you spot them both in the photo below ? 

The old male Muntjac was visible the other day in horrendous weather conditions. His new stubby antlers have grown well over the last couple of months, and although he still has that awful abcess on his hind leg, he still appears healthy and is eating well … 

A young Sparrowhawk visited the neighbours Oak Tree last week and I took loads of photos as it perched at almost eye level to the Lockdown Loftroom window. One of the Great Spotted Woodpeckers that visits the Birch tree, stayed completely still the whole time the hawk was perched ….

So a very interesting and rewarding visit to Cranford Country Park, and some nice recent experiences from the Lockdown Loftroom. 

A very hot day at Cranford Park but still plenty to see

Heatwave or no heatwave, the butterflies still carry on. You're probably more likely to see butterflies in greater numbers when it's a few degrees cooler but they still have the ultimate purpose in life to find and mate with as many partners as possible. 

Right at the end of my transect today at Cranford Park this stunning Jersey Tiger Moth appeared. There were three in total but only this one settled long enough to get a photo. 

The tally for todays UKBMS transect ….. 

10/08/2020

Large White x 10

Small Copper x 7

Common Blue x 1

Holly Blue x 6

Red Admiral x 1

Speckled Wood x 9

Gatekeeper x 8

Meadow Brown x 29

Small Heath x 11

Small Heath numbers are still going up and that is a great result for Cranford Park where we rarely see the second flush of these tiny little beauties. And the Meadow Brown numbers are up on last week, when I was worried that they were in a steep decline. So generally all round, todays count was very good considering the heat. 

a tatty aged Gatekeeper

a fresh Small Heath

Small Copper

Small Copper

When I left the park I walked back via the woods and paths that lead to Watersplash. In the sheltered grasses at the back of the houses I found a Purple Hairstreak. I can never get a good photo of these fidgety little butterflies but it was still great to see one. I cant even put it on my butterfly count as it was way off my transect route, but I will let my UKBMS Mentor know that these appear to be spreading across the park. They are not that rare, just rarely seen as they spend most of their lives in the oak tree canopies. I have found that I tend to see them at the park when the summer has been particularly warm. The heat causes some trees to prematurely drop their leaves, and I guess that's why butterflies like this come down to the ground. 

a very bad photo of Purple Hairstreak

The girls in the Cattle Paddock don't really mind the heat too much. There's plenty of shade if they want it and a huge water trough that is automatically topped up.

The resident Kestrel family were very active whilst I was walking through the paddock doing the butterfly count. I saw all five (both adults and three juveniles) at one point. 

My first three photos were quite hard to take due to the heat haze that was coming off the meadows ….. 

Spot the Kestrel

Spot the Kestrel

Spot the Kestrel

One young female was content to stay perched on one of the tree guards and she let me get fairly close. I could see she was feeling the heat and often sat with her beak open …...

and I was lucky enough to see all three juveniles on one tree and tree guard, but the only photo I got was just as one went to fly off and sadly the photo didn't come out as focussed as I would like. Normally I would 'bin' a photo as badly blurred as this, but I'll count it as a record shot until I can get a better one …. 

The wildlife pond, river and the ditches surrounding the park were all very quiet. No Mallards, no Kingfisher, no Heron, no Little Egret and no Moorhens or Coots. They will have been sheltering from the heat under the vegetation. But I saw plenty of stickleback and other small fish in the river by the Iron Bridge so the water looks to be fairly healthy. 

In the cooler Cranford Woods, I found two quite distinctive feathers.... 

They are from a Green Woodpecker. Over the years I have come to realise that the Green Woodpeckers really prefer this corner of Cranford Woods, probably because there are a far number of decaying trees there and a healthy population of Ring-Necked Parakeets and Jackdaws. Both species like to nest in old nest holes, and this proves there are plenty to go round. 

It might have been very hot, and I might have resembled a glowing wet tomato after my two hour transect (it was too hot to rush) but I find any visit to Cranford Park is successful in one or another. For a country park that is surrounded by noise and pollution, the wildlife I find there always surprises me. 

A couple of nice August surprises at Cranford Park

I was at the park on Wednesday but not to do anything 'nature'. A few of us met up to have a toast for David, one of the founder members of the Cranford Park Friends, who sadly recently passed away. We shared our memories of him and the lovely Daphne told us all about how she first met him before the war by grudgingly knitting him a jumper plus many more wonderful stories including how he built their kitchen from scratch adding a bit each week when they could afford to buy more wood. The bespoke kitchen still stands to this day. 

There will be small everlasting memorial to David in the park by the end of this year. 

We had some great news this week too when it was officially announced that Cranford Country Park has been successful in its bid for National Heritage Lottery funding. There will obviously be more about what this means and what happens next when our brilliant Project Manager, Charmian Baker, is back from a very well earned break. Another very big key part of this bid was the part Bob Barton, the Friends secretary, played in all of this. And of course none of this would have been possible without all the free time our parks great volunteers gave up to conduct surveys, collect signatures and help fund raise and also big thanks to the background work from our contacts at Hillingdon Council. I am so proud to be a part of this and am really looking forward to seeing the new stage for Cranford Park develop. 

I was going to complete the weekly UKBMS transect at Cranford Park yesterday but I'm glad I chose not to as the park was one of the hottest recorded places in the UK with a whooping 37oC. Even if I had made it to the park with both bus routes E6 and 195 on diversion and some bus stops closed, I doubt if I would have made it around the park without melting ! So this afternoon I conducted the weekly count with some good and bad results but in much more manageable weather. 

The tally for todays 115 minute transect is....

01/08/20

Large White x 7

Small White x 1

Small Copper x 7

Holly Blue x 7

Red  Admiral x 3

Peacock x 2

Comma x 2

Speckled Wood x 10

Gatekeeper x 32

Meadow Brown x 11

Small Heath x 2

The bad news is that Meadow Browns numbers are still down. I cannot say for sure that lockdown caused this (as said in previous blogs there was more foot traffic in the park during lockdown) and I would need to see what counts I would get next July and August to do a proper comparison. Weather conditions could also be a factor. 

The good news is we have a second flush of Small Heaths. These little inconspicuous butterflies have two generations so we can see them in both May and August, but I rarely get a count of the second flush at Cranford Park as they don't often reach this stage. I always see them in one certain area within the Cattle Paddock so maybe the cows are doing their bit for this particular species of butterfly ? 

I was asked last Wednesday if there were any good 'butterfly' results at Cranford Park this season and I've got to admit we have had a bumper year for the dainty Small Copper. They have to be in the top three of my favourite butterfly and I have seen loads this season. 

Here come the photos …… 

Peacock on the buddleia by the M4 wall

Red Admiral on the buddleia by the M4 wall

Speckled Wood in Cranford Woods

Gatekeeper on bramble by the Cranford Lane entrance to the park

Holly Blue in the Secret Garden

Small Copper in the Cattle Paddock

Small Copper

Small Copper

Small Copper

Small Copper

Small Heath in the Cattle Paddock

The photo below is a closed wing of a Gatekeeper. The Small Heath above looks very similar but is much smaller and 'lighter' in colour. When a Small Heath flies low amongst the long grasses it's more a yellowy colour whereas the Gatekeeper below is larger and more orange-brown …. 

The white dots within the eye spots normally help with identification too. Gatekeepers generally have two white dots, and Meadow Browns and Small Heaths only have one, but as I proved in last weeks blog post, Meadow Browns sometimes have two white dots. Confused ? So am I !! There's nothing boring about the butterfly world ! 

Meadow Brown - a normal one with one white dot within the eye spot

A size comparison - a very worn Gatekeeper on the left and a Meadow Brown on the right.

In the Secret Gardens herb trough I found this lovely little Mint Moth, also called the Purple and Gold for obvious reasons  … 

Because of the bus diversions and closed bus stops I walked back into Hayes Town via the 'other side' of the woods. When I first used to visit the park many moons ago I always came to the park via the 'other side' and got one of my favourite ever photos from there (a Muntjac being stalked by a cat near the old Crane Pub) but I havent been that way for ages. The river is cleaner that side so I did hope I might see a Kingfisher but to no avail. I could hear a young Sparrowhawk calling but couldn't locate it. But there were plenty of Large White and Speckled Wood butterflies around and these nice Lords and Ladies along the path …. 

I was having a rest on a log when I got the feeling I was being watched …. 

Spot the fox ! It's only a youngster and this was the only (out of focus) photo I managed to get before it disappeared in the scrub. 

As always a really pleasant few hours at the park. Seen but not photographed were one of the juvenile Kestrels on the grassy paths within the meadow, two Red Kites soaring over the Cattle Paddock, two Grey Wagtails on the river by Cranford Lane and a very vocal Common Buzzard very low over Cranford Woods.