The last few weeks have been unseasonably warm and dry. March is lining up to become one of the driest in recent memory. I have no doubt that April will make up for it!
The weather has brought out the butterflies - Brimstone (which never hang around long enough for a photo), Commas, Peacock and finally I have managed to get a photo of a Holly Blue. I have seen them in the garden before but they are very difficult to photograph. Firstly, they are very tiny and secondly, they flutter around the tops of the shrubs. The shrubs in our garden are very mature and many of them are at least 2 metres high. This makes photographing the butterflies very difficult.
The photo above is the best I could manage today and since the weather forecast predicts an end to this dry spell, I may not get another chance. Although, you cannot see it from the photograph, the upper wings are a darker blue. The underside of the wings is a silvery colour with black speckles.
Elsewhere in the garden, there is a frenzy of activity - nests are being built, the male pheasants are showing off their gorgeous colours and chasing the females. The bluetits have set up home in the bird box on the pergola. It is also the time of year when we see all the birds in pairs. In the last couple of days, 2 green woodpeckers, 2 nuthatches, 2 chaffinches, 2 robins.
My favourite time of year!
3 comments:
My favourite time of the year too! I like the unusual angle you took the butterfly from.
Blue tits are so endearing!
Thanks, Zinnia. I did not have much choice about the angle. The butterfly was 2 metres above me and he/she was looking down at me over the edge of the leaf!
I love the way animals and plants present themselves to us as they do without posing, or worrying about their best profile!
Come and visit me to see spring in Switzerland on my blog: Reflections and Nature!
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