It is butterfly season again and I undertook my first UKBMS transect of the year on 30th March. As to be expected at that time of year, there were not too many butterflies on the wing but I did count nine butterflies of two different species.
Brimstone x 6
Peacock x 3
Yesterday, the 23rd April the count was higher with a total of 15 butterflies of six species....
Brimstone x 3
Large White x 1
Orange Tip x 6 (all males)
Holly Blue x 1
Peacock x 3
Comma x 1
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| Peacock butterfly |
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| Brimstone - female |
I was also at the park yesterday to meet up with Bob Barton, the Cranford Park Friends secretary, Susan Dalloe, the Borough Curator for the London Borough of Hillingdon, and the incredibly talented camera-man and sound-man, Tom.
Susan and Tom are putting together a short video about springtime at Cranford Park, and I was more than happy to help by writing a short dictation and pointing out the best places to see the parks wildlife and spring flowers, including the good display of bluebells currently blooming in the ancient woods.
Whilst we were looking at the river, this delightful Grey Wagtail flew in and posed perfectly for Tom and myself ....
and we watched a Grey Heron fishing near the stone bridge...
We also had a great flyover view from our resident male Kestrel, and watched one of the Common Buzzards soaring over the woods.
The woods were full of bird song, including many Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs, Robins, Blackbirds, Song Thrushes and Goldcrests.
The bluebell display will probably be at it's peak in about a weeks time, but there were still plenty to see yesterday ...
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| The rarer pure white 'bluebell' |
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| Large White butterfly nectaring on bluebells |
The fine weather also bought out numerous Bee-flies. These ones are called the Dark-edged Bee-fly and are the largest in the Bombylius family...
They look similar to a bumblebee with a long straight proboscis that it uses to feed on spring flowers like primroses, violets and lesser celandine. They have yellowy brown hair on their body and dark markings on the edges of the wings. The larvae of this bee-fly feed on the grubs of ground nesting and solitary bees. The female bee-flies actually hover near a solitary bee nest hole, and flick her eggs in to the hole so they land in the right place to start feeding as soon as they have hatched. They are completely harmless even if they do 'buzz' a bit.
Later in the day I found a pair of Mistle Thrush feeding in the orchard, a possible Common Buzzard nest deep in the woods and another Grey Wagtail at the other end of the River Crane.
Sadly I did not hear or see any Skylarks, which really is not good news. Cranford Park used to have a thriving population of these stunning ground nesting birds along with another ground nesting bird, the Meadow Pipit. But yesterday there was no sign of either species.
Apart from that it was a lovely day to wander around the park, and it was great to show Bob, Susan and Tom some of my favourite places within the park and I'm really looking forward to seeing the video.
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