Wednesday 26th March: afternoon.
With the sun shining brightly, the morning's cloud quickly dissipating and hardly a breath of wind, I set off round my local patch - or the most productive bit at this stage of the year, which is the bit nearer to home. Within a minute I had seen my first Brimstone and Peacock, and then I spotted a white butterfly a little way ahead. It was a bit nervy, and I only just managed to identify it as a GVW and grab a quick shot before it was in the air again.
I set off after it, and just as it was about to land again, there was a flash of silver right across in front of me. That could only be one thing - a Holly Blue. This butterfly (a male) was much easier to follow, as it made a beeline for an area of mud at the edge of the lake and settled down to take on minerals.
It was quite approachable here, and happily exchanged the mud for whatever there might have been on the end of my finger.
Eventually, I persuaded it to decamp to a bit of bramble, but in the end it elected to sit for a while on a dock leaf instead.
After this excitement (two new species for the year, and one of them a particular favourite), the majority of my walk was occupied with the usual suspects that have been around so far this spring: Red Admirals, Commas, Peacocks and Brimstones. It was now into the afternoon, and I only saw five of the last of these species before they vanished. However, Peacocks at last made up for their relative absence so far this year, and I counted 21 altogether. They were regularly positioned all along the paths I walked, taking advantage of the fact that these were now dried out and warming nicely in the sun.
They also were to be seen on the willow blossom which is in full swing.
They had to share the paths with the Commas, with which they often duelled, and with one or two Red Admirals. Considering the latter's propensity for chasing anything that moves, there were no clashes with the Peacocks or Commas that I observed. I suspect I've been seeing the same half-a-dozen Red Admirals over the course of the month and with so much activity they are definitely getting worn.
As the afternoon wore on, more Commas seemed to appear until I had counted 10 - including these two which just a moment before this shot was taken had been going at it hammer-and-tongs above my head.
However, others just kept an eye open for rivals.
Coming to the end of my walk, while walking close to the hedge mainly to make sure I was out of line of sight of an unpleasantly aggressive dog, I spotted a very bright new Speckled Wood flitting in and out of the shade. Unfortunately, it only settled once and the sun was too much for it to bask open-winged, so this was the best I could manage.
It then disappeared into the undergrowth and given it's bright patterning I guessed it might have been a female. Shortly afterwards, I caught sight of what I thought might be a female Brimstone - it was large and nearly white. However, it was not flying like that species, and as I approached and tried a shot of it in the air, it flew up around the tops of the trees and disappeared. Though hardly a clear photo, the dark wing tips and otherwise overall white colour made me feel confident that this was a male Large White.
At the end of the day, I had seen 45 butterflies and seen 8 species - 4 of which were new for the year. An excellent afternoon!
Dave
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