...is the only way to describe the weather this weekend. I even managed to see my first butterflies of the year too. On Saturday, a
Peacock narrowly escaped the foot of a sniffing terrier in the garden, but a
Comma, looking tired after hibernation was more approachable. A
Small Tortoiseshell on Sunday was the last of a very welcome trio.
Two
Dark edged Bee-Flies added to the insect interest, including only my second in the garden.
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| Dark edged Bee Fly |
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| Comma |
On the bird front, a drake
Ring necked Duck caused some excitement for the young or newer birders in the county, being the first here since 2010. We used to see them quite regularly in the 80's / 90's with long staying birds touring a lot of sites. This bird is favouring Hauxley Nature Reserve ( closed until special weekend opening times) with an odd excursion down to East Chevington.
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| As the Ring necked Duck was distant in my photo, I did this small drawing back at home. |
We dipped it at the latter site, where the wintering
Shorelarks and
Twite,
16+ Scaup and
60+ Goldeneye were the main attraction, luckily we caught up with the dapper yank later on at Hauxley NWT.
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| Above - Shorelark |
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| Above - Twite |
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| Reed Bunting |
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| Chevington Burn mouth, the haunt of shorelark, twite and snow bunting.... |
1 comment:
I love bee flies. There is something inherently amusing about them!
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