Some musings from 21st January...
More very cold nights and bright sunny (but chilly) days where I am. It is always interesting to see parts of my local walk and imagine the frost gone and the butterflies returning....
This stretch of path had the adjacent River Colne overflow onto it during the recent wet weather - and now it has frozen. It is a favourite spot for patrolling Orange Tips in the spring - and for jousting Red Admirals on summer evenings.
This patch has simply just flooded from abundance of rainfall and has also frozen (remaining shaded all day at the moment and not melting). This merits the "Comma Corner" name and hopefully in about three months, numerous examples of this species and Peacocks will be squabbling over the area. The trees are a favourite roosting site for Large Whites too.
The next bit of path is where the Large Skippers patrol (and at the far end is where my 2022 Large Tortoiseshell appeared). Again, very shaded now in parts with the frost not melting at all.
However, even with this very wintry feel to things, my sheltered nettle patch still produced a Red Admiral caterpillar snug in its "tent". There may have been others, but it was really too chilly to hang around searching for long!
Cheers,
Dave