Saturday 30 July 2016

Showing friends the nature at Cranford Park

I've had a lovely afternoon at Cranford Park. I bumped into Sue and Jasper the bird-dog for a quick catch up just before they left, then had a mooch around the meadows looking for Kestrels. They didn't disappoint with four being seen at the same time.
 
An hour later one of the park regulars, Sheila Perry, arrived. Even though she walks through the park a lot she's never knowingly seen the Kestrels, and I promised her today we would.....and of course we did.
 
Another pair of good friends, Paul and Sheila Provins, also joined us later in the afternoon and it was great to show them the Kestrels too.
 
So thank you Cranford Park Kestrels for putting on a good show.... 
 








 
Later on Sheila and I found another juvenile Kestrel at the Stable Blocks. It seems younger than the ones in the meadows and was still 'calling' for food when an adult was near, so I'm in two minds. Is there another family of Kestrels at the back of the park ? Or is this just the 'runt' of the resident family ? I will be investigating more tomorrow.
 


 
Lastly two more good friends, Paul Cox and Susy Jones, showed up to help me look to see if we have Essex Skippers at Cranford Park. We get both Large and Small Skippers, and I know there is a small colony of Essex Skippers on a roundabout near one of the Heathrow Terminals. 
After much searching during which we only found a handful of Small Skippers, Paul finally found an Essex Skipper.....
 


 
and Susy found me a lovely fresh Brown Argus....
 


 
Despite only being out for a few hours I had a great time with great company.
Thank you Sheila, Paul and Sheila (and thanks for the mug) and Paul and Susy.
 
 
 

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