Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly

One of the few occasion when a butterfly kept still long enough to get the camera really close:



An uncropped photo taken with the Nikon Coolpix S9050

A Quick Burst

This time I went in the garden with the 100 - 500mm zoom lens hand held with manual focus. This is the first time I have set the camera to burst mode where it can take up to seven photos a second. I hoped that might give me a better chance of catching an insect in flight. Holding this set up anything near steady is quite a tussle as it weighs about 2.7Kg

First spotted though was this Small Tortoise butterfly resting



Then a hover fly led me a merry dance but out of dozens of flight shots a couple were reasonable.





Resting giving its wings a Spring clean



Finally a Peacock butterfly landed nearby



Feeding on a Dandelion



Another good afternoon in the Sun. Clear sky can mean warm daylight hours. Two days ago it reached 15C. Yesterday about 12C. Clear sky at night is a different matter this time of year. Lowest air temperature in the wee small hours was -2C with a good layer of frost.

All the photos here are small crops.

A Frog and a Froghopper

The Summer display in my hanging baskets was well and truly over. The Fuchsias came to nothing. They stayed still at about 3 inches high. Fortunately the trailing Lobelia put on a really nice display. Though watered every dry day even they eventually gave up the ghost.

I emptied and relined the baskets then filled them with new compost ready, I hope, for a Winter and Spring display. Round the perimeter are trailing Winter flowering Pansies. Taking up the centre portion are bulbs; Hyacinth, Dwarf Iris (all those are blue) and Puschkinia libanotica (Russian Snowdrops) which have white petals with a blue stripe. I've not grown those before so we will see how they get on.

As for the garden wildlife. A couple of days ago I spotted a young frog on the path



This one was a bit larger than others seen recently so may be a two year old.

While I was troweling compost from the bag to a hanging basket what should decide to leap in to have a close look at what was going on? A common Froghopper (Philaenus spumarius)


 

Weird looking creatures.

Finally a butterfly landed in the garden.
A Small Tortoiseshell

 

A bit of a rare event here this Summer.

Fluttering About

What a glorious early Spring day it was on Thursday.
By late morning the temperature had reached a heady12.5C
I decided to check the heathers to see what was about.
There along with dozens of bees were three Small Tortoiseshell butterflies:



Making a change from yellow were some small clumps of Chionodoxa forbesi (Glory of the Snow):




Yet another brief visit to the camera nestbox by both Great Tits this morning:

Spring Flutters

Just getting ready for our afternoon walkies yesterday when this landed in the back garden:

Looking a bit battered:

Peacock Butterfly

Then as we walked down the lane I spotted a couple of:

Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly

They took me by surprise as at 12.5C with a cold breeze it wasn't the warmest of recent days.

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:



All the miniature Narcissus were in full bloom.



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

Mainly Small Tortoiseshells:






and Peacocks:




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.





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.

Friday at the Flicks - Flutter - Bird Table - Nest Box

I have only seen two butterflies so far this year but that is two more than I normally see in March. This Small Tortoiseshell was resting on a Grape Hyacinth:



For a time to time I have considered fixing a camera near the Bird Table to observe just how many different birds visit it. Wednesday was a nice sunny day so I finally got Round Tuit. As usual what was planned to be an hours task took most of the day as I tried out a couple of cameras and different lenses. I do have a spare outdoor camera which I tried first but the results were poor so I opted for an indoor camera fitted in a waterproof housing. This is the first trial recordings: The wire mesh is to keep out the larger birds and give the smaller ones a chance to get their share of the food. (silent)



Finally - a few days ago I happened to capture both Great Tits making further investigations of the camera nest box.: One of them is the one with a bald head seen earlier. It looks as though new feathers are starting to grow. (silent and longer than my usual clips at 3min 30sec)



Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you wherever you are.

Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly

This one was spotted last Saturday morning warming itself in the early morning sunshine.


 Aglais urticae

Bit of an allsorts day yesterday, weather-wise. At one stage it was pouring with rain but the front garden was bathed in brilliant sunshine while a few miles to the south I could hear a thunderstorm. Here we had about 3/4 inch of rain but looking at the met office maps during the day we were lucky as much heavier rainfall was shown in most of the surrounding areas.

On the Hedgehog front I am puzzled as to what has happened to the locals. Not one has been seen in the feeding area for the past 7 nights. The activity had started to pick up after a short lull and then suddenly stopped.

Monday was a Warm Lazy Day

Last Monday was the first time for many a day since I set up the Sun umbrella and the folding canvas chair and sat out in the garden for a few hours with the camera in my lap.

There are just two plants which are attracting dozens of insects. One is a line of four lavender bushes in the front garden. These have been attracting a continuous stream of scores of bumble bees and dozens of butterflies. The butterfly population is mainly Large Whites along with a few smaller white varieties. I pity any neighbours growing brassicas with such a large population looking for breeding grounds. I tried for some video of the lavender - not the best but does give an impression of the activity.

Wide view of the Large Whites
Close shot of a Small Tortoiseshell
Close shot of my first view of a Painted Lady
Finally a very world weary, wind battered Red Admiral on a fence. (The only one I have seen so far this year)



The other plant which has attracted bumble bees, butterflies and the occasional day flying moth is growing just over the fence in next door's garden.

Bumble Bees


Small Tortoiseshell


Peacock


Painted Lady


I kept seeing white butterflies landing on the lawn - well I say lawn but there is more clover than grass this year! It was the clover which was attracting this one - a Green-veined? which was laying its eggs under the clover leaves.



It has been very windy from time to time and many of the butterflies were looking the worse for wear. This is the Red Admiral from the video. It sat on the fence for a while soaking up the sun. I can't remember how long it is since I have seen one of these in the garden.



There are still plenty of Hoverflies about and the lily flower shown a few days ago is still attracting many. They investigate everything including the seed feeders.



... and various other plants


... including this onion flower head which also sheltered a crop of tiny black beetles.



Bobby had taken up one of his favourite positions in the entrance to the shed where he could find a bit of shade and still keep an eye on me.



Not many birds came to visit the feeders as I was fairly close to them. Those that did kept a watchful eye on me.



One young Sparrow arrived with parent and continually fluttered its wings to remind the adult it was feeding time.



A couple of House Sparrows peered down to see if it was their turn for the seed feeder....



... and a Starling showed off his new coat of many colours.



The adult Starlings have little trouble balancing on the fat ball feeders but the juveniles find it a problem trying to grip the slippery wires.



Finally a seven spot Ladybird investigating the clover leaves. I wonder if it found the White Butterfly's eggs?



Wow - if you made it to the end, thanks for visiting.