With the Moss under threat of development I've spent a lot of time walking and recording what I see there. I went out there on 4th April when the wind was howling across - far too cold for butterflies but I did achieve a reasonable photo of a Yellowhammer. I've never seen these birds before and apparently they are on the red-list of endangered species.
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Four days later I was there again and turned up the track by the barrier to the road that leads to Manchester United's training ground. The guard's hut is heated, sadly, by a diesel generator which puts out vast quantities of polluting fumes all day. I wasn't even beyond the stink of it before coming across the first of the orange-tips - a couple of males - who despite their environment looked nice and clean and fresh. As I progressed along the track - and out of the reach of the diesel fumes - I counted fully 25 O-tips of which only 3 or 4 were females. The males kept making advances but the females repulsed them, being interested only in nectaring on the dandelions.
Several male Brimstones patrolled the stretch and had to share the dendelions with the Orange-tips. I didn't see any females though
By the former orchard on Brookheys Road (still an old unmade lane and long may it remain so) the first of this year's Speckled Woods made their appearance
Continuing the trail round to the old disused railway I watched a pair of courting Peacocks. One of them had evidently decided on the ideal spot to make a home and the pair danced around together, darting away and returning time and again, for twenty minutes. Suddenly they shot away over the hedge and although I waited a few minutes they must have changed their minds about the locality for they did not return.