Re: IAC
Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 7:48 pm
EARLY MARCH BUTTEFLIES
Some cool and cloudy weather has finally given way to something a little more acceptable. Bright sunshine and temperatures at around 14oC certainly demanded a good long walk down by the river Whiteadder today. A brisk westerly chased me into the wooded edges that had at least a south east face and it did not take too long to see a Comma firing past at speed. Another Comma on the same banking only minutes later was a little easier to approach and it seemed to be in very good nick indeed. The sunshine became a little milky after lunch and the wind intensified a little heralding a dark slab of cloud....so I used the lull in the weather to transport myself to another location, a well sheltered bank that is permanently wet due to underground springs. The ground is very muddy and never freezes over in a frost, so Butterbur always flowers here first. The first butterflies were Small Tortoiseshell and Peacock, one of each. The Small Tortoiseshell only had eyes for its big and bold new girlfriend...poor little thing. Another Comma alighted and landed on a Butterbur leaf on the other side of the shallow spring stream...so...with one knee in the stream and braving the mud I got another photo.
I think by the looks of it that given another 2 days of this weather there will be good numbers of butterfly tempted out into the open....very early indeed for this part of the world at least.
Some cool and cloudy weather has finally given way to something a little more acceptable. Bright sunshine and temperatures at around 14oC certainly demanded a good long walk down by the river Whiteadder today. A brisk westerly chased me into the wooded edges that had at least a south east face and it did not take too long to see a Comma firing past at speed. Another Comma on the same banking only minutes later was a little easier to approach and it seemed to be in very good nick indeed. The sunshine became a little milky after lunch and the wind intensified a little heralding a dark slab of cloud....so I used the lull in the weather to transport myself to another location, a well sheltered bank that is permanently wet due to underground springs. The ground is very muddy and never freezes over in a frost, so Butterbur always flowers here first. The first butterflies were Small Tortoiseshell and Peacock, one of each. The Small Tortoiseshell only had eyes for its big and bold new girlfriend...poor little thing. Another Comma alighted and landed on a Butterbur leaf on the other side of the shallow spring stream...so...with one knee in the stream and braving the mud I got another photo.
I think by the looks of it that given another 2 days of this weather there will be good numbers of butterfly tempted out into the open....very early indeed for this part of the world at least.