Sunday 9 March 2014

A Day of Flutters

It took a while to get going but today was glorious and lived up to the forecast with my weather station recording a high of 19.7˚C with wall to wall Sunshine:

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All the miniature Narcissus were in full bloom.

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The highlight for me was seeing dozens of butterflies emerging from their Winter shelter spots.

Mainly Small Tortoiseshells:
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and Peacocks:
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The only other type I saw were five Brimstones but they would not settle anywhere near to be photographed. That is more Brimstones than I saw in the whole of last year. So far it is looking good for a decent year of flutters.

Also emerging from various cracks and cavities were more seven spot Ladybirds.

A different view for a change.

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It looks as though today was a one off with temperatures forecast to return near the seasonal average of 7-10˚C in this part of the country.

14 comments:

  1. you just gave me a big dose of spring fever! :)

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  2. Good to see you getting some good weather.

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  3. John - great flutter shots! what are you doing differently with your photos? These seem to have very saturated color.

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    1. Wilma. Apart from using an automatic enhance feature in iPhoto which brightens them up a bit they are as taken by the Nikon. The brilliant Sunshine helped a lot.

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  4. Hi John,
    It was great to see a few flutters at the weekend, saw a few Brimstones as well as Small Tortoiseshells and Peacocks, lots of moths in the dark too! Bring on the Spring proper!
    J
    Follow me at HEDGELAND TALES

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    1. John: Moth activity has been well down in my garden for several years here. At the same time there was drastically reduced bat activity in the garden as well. I am definitely ready for more day like last Sunday.

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  5. Lovely shot of the daff John. You also go to see a lot of butterflies. I haven't seen any yet.

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    1. Thank you Roy. That was a stacked photo of the daff. Usually I see flutters much later than everyone else.

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  6. How lovely to experience such summery temps even if just for a few days! The butterflies and daffodils introduce spring beautifully :)

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    1. Glo: Even one glorious day makes such a difference. Lots of early morning fog but sunny afternoons.

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  7. Photograph a brimstone? LOL, you should see my attempts with a mobile phone camera

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    1. Simon. It can be bad enough with a long telephoto lens. It's a pity mobile phone cameras have such wide angle lenses.

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Thank you for visiting. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Any comment, or correction to any information or identification I get wrong, is most welcome. John

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