The first thing I did on waking this morning was to check on the Blue Tits: the nest was empty, so no eggs yet. The pair have been to-ing and fro-ing this afternoon and I'll be interested to see whether the female spends the night in the box as she did last night.
When I got home from work this afternoon it was very warm and sunny so I grabbed my camera and went for a walk in the woods.
I almost immediately saw my first Red Admiral of the year but he wasn't being sociable enough to let me take his picture. As he flew away I heard a Nightingale and my first Willow Warbler too, along with several Chiffchaffs.
Further along the path I came across a Small Tortoiseshell which had settled on a monumental pile of dog poo
Then as the sun seemed to grow stronger I found not one but three Peacocks
At times all three would chase one another, spiralling up high into the blue sky before breaking off and settling back down on the path
A Comma was flitting about near-by
I then moved to another part of the wood where I came across first one and then three Brimstones, all busily on patrol. I thought I'd attempt to get a photo of one as it flew past
But then to my surprise it landed and allowed me to get up close
My butterfly stalking is notoriously bad; the more careful I try to be the more I blunder about, and so knowing how flighty Brimstones are at this time of year I began to wonder why this one seemed so tolerant
And when I saw a big fly land on it as if it were a dead leaf yet still the Brimstone remained motionless I began to fear that the poor thing had expired right before my eyes.
But that wasn't the case and as I got practically nose to nose with it, it flew up and away. Five species of butterfly in one short walk: I was very pleased indeed.
