I forgot to mention last Saturday I saw 2 Goldcrests in the garden, the first time I've seen more than 1 here. They spent ages in the trees flitting about.
Back to today. Spring seems to continue in Middlesex with another lovely day of warm sunshine.
I had two sorties to the cemetery this afternoon and saw 3 different Commas, I think 2 females and 1 deeply dark orange male with a deformed hindwing. The shape was right but was half the size it should be and light tan in colour. I made chase but alas no photos. Here's one of the females, I think:
At home, another male had set up residence in the front garden in exactly the same spot as last year's first garden Comma. He made good use of the car too! A Peacock flew in and they had a dogfight before returning to his post.
Meanwhile, in kitten news, Tilly (as we have named her) has been in season since we were in Worcerstershire. She has developed a fan club, 2 males that would follow her everywhere. One was a nice looking tabby that lives up the road. The other one was a ragged looking old grey thing with white feet and a dodgy leg. I know which I would have preferred her to bring home!
Anyway, our sleep has been at a premium. Her behaviour has changed, she sleeps less and has worked out how to open the bedroom door. Plus old Grey has been howling for her non stop, ALL NIGHT.
We went to the vets yesterday and Tilly is going back there tomorrow, so we won't have a repeat of the last week. When we came back, the two males weren't to be found and everything seemed to have returned to normal. I presume Tilly's season has passed.
Today, while stalking the Comma in the garden, I came across old Grey, down by the side of the car, stiff as a board. Put a bit of a downer on the day to be honest, as much of a pain in the arse as he was. I guess the excitement of chasing young Tilly for over a week has done him in.
So I knocked on a few doors but with no joy. We'd never seen him before last week and have no idea who, if anyone, he belonged to. We buried him in the garden and made a little cross out of bamboo, upon which a Robin came and sat, admiring the freshly dug soil. And that was that.
To butterfly meadows, chalk downlands and leafy glades; to summers eternal.