Thanks Trevor, Spring is well and truly here now
Cheers Dave, I have seen both Small Tortoiseshells and Peacocks puddling in the spring but as you say usually in the drier years.
Sorry Wurzel, in my defence I did say "perhaps not"
Hi David, I have noticed before in your previous posts that the spring vanessids seem to appear and also disappear before they do around here. In fact your season seems to run earlier than mine in general.
Hi James, it is indeed hard to beat the chocolate and cream look of a fresh spring Speckled Wood...almost as if they have evolved especially for Easter
Saturday 15th April
The glorious warm sunshine of the previous weekend was not to last and we soon returned to more normal spring weather around here with lots of cloud and a cool breeze and some sunny spells. The only butterflies that I have seen during the week were a couple of my ever reliable Speckled Woods to greet me in the garden when I got back in from work later in the afternoon.
- Speckled Wood male from earlier in the week
On the other hand, the clouds have usually melted away at night leaving clear skies which have led to some cold breezy nights and a light frost on some mornings. This has meant that I have had low numbers of moths coming to the trap with just a few Hebrew Characters and Common Quakers on the couple of nights I ran the trap recently.
Saturday arrived and being Easter weekend we had some family stuff going on, between which I spent some time in the garden generally pottering about with my camera close to hand as usual.
It was quite cool at first but by mid-morning the occasional sunny spell had a bit of warmth to it and the first Speckled Woods were up and about, two males holding their corners.
- Speckled Wood male #1
- Speckled Wood male #2
These were soon followed by Holly Blues and Oranges-tip doing their rounds, probably the same few individuals doing circuits which always makes it seem like there were more of them. The Holly Blues settled a few times but always out of reach. One of the Orange-tips however was tempted to stop for a brief top-up at one of my 'bowles mauve' plants which gave me a chance for a quick photo.
- Orange-tip - Coverdale 15.04.2017
Later in the afternoon I managed to catch the shot below, of which a close examination proves that it was the same individual which I had seen earlier, although on one occasion I saw 2 in the air together so there was at least 2 of them going around.
- The same individual seen earlier in the day
During one of the cloudier periods in the afternoon, I watched a Green-veined White slowly fluttering about the garden and settle frequently, including on one of the cow-slips growing in the lawn, which gave me some good photo opportunities before the sun came back out and he warmed up enough to be on his way.
- Green-veined White - Coverdale 15.04.2017
- Green-veined White - Coverdale 15.04.2017
- Green-veined White - Coverdale 15.04.2017
- Green-veined White - Coverdale 15.04.2017
- Green-veined White - Coverdale 15.04.2017
Also seen during the afternoon were at least one Small White and a fresh looking male Large White, my first of the latter species this year. This meant that this was the first time this year I had seen all three common whites on the same day.
- Small White - Coverdale 15.04.2017
- Large White - Coverdale 15.04.2017
I am off work next week and even though the weather does not look very promising around here, I am hoping to get out a couple of times...fingers crossed.
Bye for now,
Neil.
and you've seen seen your first Specklies of the year 
