At Last Some Sun and Warmth Encourages the Insects.

 With the advent of some warm sunny weather at last, butterflies have started to appear, albeit in small numbers. I have begun to see butterflies in the garden now with Large and small whites appearing along with green-veined white, red admiral, peacock, speckled wood and holly blue. In the cemetery I have seen 1 large and 2 small white, 4 speckled woods and 3 gatekeepers. It's nice to be seeing them but worrying that early there were virtually none and now only small numbers. This is partly due to habitat and larval food plant loss and this year, particularly, climate change which has brought a very wet winter and spring with the weather only recently beginning to improve.

Gatekeeper, cemetery.

Gatekeeper, cemetery.

Patch Birding. Spring is nearly here.

 An excellent walk around the local patch today with Nigel.  Again, as at the feeding station there was a great deal of bird activity and it is good to hear bird song again.  I was delighted to see the goldcrest in exactly the same spot agin for the third time in succession.  I really must take the camera but photographing it is going to be a challenge.  On the Horsefield we were both pleased to see that the linnets and skylarks have returned from the saltmarsh.  There were at least 6 singing male skylarks and and several small flocks of linnets.  The bullfinches were present again and we found three jays together.  We were both excited to have close views of a roe deer female curiously watching us from the plantation in the woodland burial ground.

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Skylark. (archive image)

Linnet on the Horsefield, 2020.