Tuesday 6 April 2010

Back to work today after the easter hols, and what was the weather like today ? Wall to wall sunshine ! After all that cold, wet and cloud over easter, now it turns nice, someone, somewhere is 'avin a larf' !!!!!

At least I had the afternoon in what was left of the nice weather, although the sun had turned hazy and the wind had picked up, it was still a pleasant walk. I checked out the lakeside scrub for any newly arrived migrant birds, but if there were any, they were quiet today, only the the normal fare of TREECREEPER, COAL TIT, NUTHATCH, and GOLDCREST were seen, plus the already arrived migrant species, CHIFFCHAFF and BLACKCAP, but with all of them giving some song, along with the common species, it sounded much more springlike than recent days.

Whilst in the lakeside scrub I found my first Comma Butterfly of the year, as well as my first Brimstone butterfly, Peacock was also seen on the wing, whilst just above the woodland floor scores of Bee flies hovered about.

An hour over at Migrant alley produced 4 Raptor species, PEREGRINE x2, that were mobbing a BUZZARD, KESTREL ( in the usual place!) and SPARROWHAWK, of which there seemed to be one everytime I scanned the sky! Also seen were a couple of YELLOWHAMMER, and 3 LESSER BLACK BACKED GULLS on the sheep pasture.

I didn't add any thing to the month or year list today, but it was just good to be out in some sunshine at last!!!



Above: My first Comma of the year, Below: a PEACOCK

Below is one of the many Bee Flies that were hoverring above the woodland floor.



9 comments:

Greenie said...

Warren ,
Who was looking over who's shoulder today then ?
Amazing the number of insects out today .
Car stat said 16C. but it didn't fell that .

Derek Faulkner said...

Warren,

Lovely out this morning apart from the wind. See what happens when Kaddy has a day off.
This afternoon, sitting in the garden in the sun, I had two Peacock butterflies desperately looking for some food and ending up on the flowers of a Rosemary bush.

Phil and Mandy said...

Lovely butterfly shos warren, did you see my yellow wagtail photos from dungeness on yesterdays blog?

Ken. said...

Hi Warren.
Looks like you and Greenie had similar days. Nice photo's of the Butterflies.
Shame you didn't add anything to your year list
Typical holiday weather heh? go back to work and it cheers up. Still well done.

Jann said...

Wow, butterflies! Gorgeous shots too! Feeling jealous again, ha. It's snowing today...April is like our worst 'winter' month and it's supposed to be spring! BLAH!

Pete Woodruff said...

You had a much better day weather-wise than up here int'norf Warren, no chance of three butterfly species today I can assure you, never really came daylight and still that bloody cold wind....Oh dear!!

Sharon said...

Glad you had some sunshine at last Warren - we had rain for most of the day!
Lovely butterfly shots - not seen many over here but the bumblebees are out in force (some the size of small birds!)

Anonymous said...

Glad to hear you had a good weather day, Warren. We had high cloud and strong wind to contend with.

Lancashire and Lakeland Outback Adventure Wildlife Safaris said...

Might be able to put the wellies away and get the sunscreen out for the rest of this week Warren - keep looking up mate.

Cheers

Davo