Tuesday 13 March 2012

The first butterflies of the year

We both spent much of today out in the garden, Colin giving the potager a "going over" with the motobineuse  whilst I pottered about in the flower beds, trying to look busy.

It's hard to look busy when you've a camera constantly tempting you to take photos of all that comes your way. And today there was plenty to snap.

Before I'd even got out of the house I saw this beauty on the windowsill...


Once out in the garden Colin spotted the first peacock butterfly of the year but I wasn't quick enough to photograph it.

Another spectacular "miss" was a small hummingbird-like, bee-type of creature. It looked like a cross between a tiny shrew and a small bee...(I think that should weed out those with anything short of a fertile imagination!)

Ladybirds and bees were two a penny but then came the Brimstone butterfly and I was ready...


By now I'd abandoned the pretence of being busy. I had the camera posed ready for the next potential shot and the Brimstone didn't disappoint!



It led me a merry dance round the garden; hence the variation in the backgrounds on each picture..


I was catching my breath when I spotted these; aren't these just so pretty?


They were buried under several inches of snow in sub-zero temperatures for more than two weeks yet they've  survived and are looking lovely...

Gardening is such a pleasant and uplifting pastime.... when you've a camera, rather than a motobineuse to hand!

3 comments:

Susan said...

Lovely shots of a male Violet Carpenter Bee Xylocopa violacea, clearly showing his orange antennae tips. I got shots of one foraging at Wild Grapehyacinth today, and 5 species of butterflies. I think your hummingbird/shrew/bee hybrid !??! :-)) was probably a Dark Edged Beefly Bombylius major - they were out in numbers here for the first time this year.

Tim said...

Golly Susan... you managed to get your comment in before Colin and Elizabeth had even posted! Were you reading Elizabeth's mind? These strange bloggertimes can play havoc with one's sense of time... We had Peacock, Brimstone, Carpenter Bee and Orange-tip here today. I probably missed others... ploughing!

Tim said...

Love the pictures... the Carpenter Bee [or Big Black Bomber as I call it] is one of my favourite insects... and your Brimstone pix are great... lovely insect. And I think your description of a Beefly is superb... it describes it perfectly... but have you noticed that, when two are close together, their hummmms are different... you get a beat frequency...