finaly the long winter fast is over!
i saw my first butterflies of the year today also, both male brimstones in walkford and highcliffe, on the hants dorset border.
great to see your photos guy, nick and charles.

gary.

thanks guys!

for anyone that gets a kick out of depicting nature, that's the nicest reflective comments anyone can give and warms my heart!

gary.

well i didn't see a much awaited brimstone or red admiral today, but spring had finaly sprung today down here in the forest! :D with a back ground track of drumming great spotted woodpecker and mewing buzzard, plus the gentle hum of nectaring honey bees and busy rumble of 3 queen bumble bees ( at lo...

hi gary, on the subject of koi, what temperature should the water have reached during the day, in spring, before feeding with pellets should commence? or does it depend on the sort of pellets? i have a vague idea that they can't digest certain foods like protien below certain temperatures, is this r...

ditto susie! im in gardens all winter long with my work and although the range of winter flowering plants producing productive flowers this year has been lower, there have been nectaring flowers out, but ive not seen a bumble bee all winter, when im usually encountering them all winter long down her...

hi alexander,

ill stick my neck out and say the only ajustments to karinas list would be

2 pearl bordered
3 queen of spain
6 heath

gary

hi hosebirder,

that would be burnished brass.

gary.

cheers pete and gary! it was good to see that some of the participants in the photo competitions on uk butt's like to and are able to express a degree of extra creativity that is capable with the various manipulative software's available today. hope that it might promp or encourage others to explore...

hi paul, that would be potentilla palustris, marsh cinquefoil so you was in the right family rosaceae with your water avens guess :D edit..... and lee your ringlet on an umbellifer looks like angelica sylvestris, wild angelica but i can't see any leaf in the image and the heads of the umbellifers on...

sorry chris, but if you have a problem typing the name "osprey", there ive done it for you. i don't see any sign of a pronounced dark eye stripe, and osprey definatly don't have shaggy shanks as they would be a problem when fishing. if it were a stray early bird returning from africa as ea...

sorry chris, but the combination of image size and angle of bird its hard to define what it is. colour wise its in the range of the harriers as guy says, but it could also be just a pale phase common buzzard. how large was it? how long was its tail in proportion? and did it have any defining marking...

thanks to all that appreciated and voted for my pic!

congrats to colin and pete on their second and third slots, and well done to all who entered this close competition.

gary.

well captain, i watched with anticipation and empathized with your obvious frustration in your efforts to get a butterfly in the frame in " butterfly meadow", watched with wonderment at your two tailed pasha clip, but after watching the series off catkin movies ive come to the conclusion t...

hi captain,

its amazing what you can do with sparklers!

nice selection of pics on flicker charles, but were did you pick your alter ego name from? captain catkin.

i thought mine was bad enough

gary.

oops! sorry susie i thought it might have been a more of a personal assessment

gary

you may wan't to change the sentence at the bottom of your messages before you pose that question susie.... if there is any truth in the statement!

gary

me thinks you may just have a slightly over active imagination vince :lol: its quite obviously a mustelid footprint of some description, maybe stoat or ferret! i kept ferrets as a boy, wonderful litte creatures and so affectionate too. well either that or it might be a section of the forewing of a s...

thought it about time i sorted an avatar for myself
great selection produced by everyone else already!

gary.

very nice
gary.

very nice work indeed

gary.