February 2022

[Old Wolf]

I saw my first Brimstone of the season yesterday on my local patch whilst checking fallen Oak branches for PHS eggs. Being in a secluded area of the wood without wind and the sun blazing through the leafless trees, it came zig zagging the rays of sunlight towards me as I stood still. It landed about five feet away from me and slanted it's wings to catch more sun. It rested there for a few minutes as a dog walker asked if I had found anything interesting? I told them it was the first Brimstone and heralded the oncoming spring as it took off and was away.

I had such a pleasant few hours to myself where being alone in the woods listening to the birds and feeling the warmth, I felt all the stress literally just slipping away and the visitation of the Brimstone really perked me up in ways that it will never know.

And to top it all off, I managed to find two PHS eggs on the same fallen branch, actually on the same cluster of buds as I was reaching my alloted time and getting ready to call it a day. This means I now have four in the shed (a fifth has revaled that it had been predated under the macro lens with a whopping hole in the side of the egg!)

[David M]

...I had such a pleasant few hours to myself where being alone in the woods listening to the birds and feeling the warmth, I felt all the stress literally just slipping away and the visitation of the Brimstone really perked me up in ways that it will never know...

Perfect words, OldWolf. In many ways that first day when you see a few butterflies after a long and tortuous winter is the best of the year, and you have encapsulated those feelings intimately.

[Stevieb]

An interesting report of a Camberwell Beauty in Kent on the 28th as per BirdGuides.

[David M]

Sunday 27th - Red Admiral seen in the woodland at Cwm Ivy on the NW Gower coast. It remained in this location for over half an hour, settling on bramble leaves and basking in the sunlight.