A few days ago, when temperatures were not getting above 2 or 3 degrees, and icy winds were blowing, the sight of a butterfly was something we could only dream of.
What a different story today! From the start the day looked good, with the early morning sun shining on the woods at the back of the house...
Within five minutes of going out into the garden we had seen a couple of butterflies, a
Xylocopa Violacea (see here) and one of
Colin's favourites, a hummingbird hawk moth..
This narcissus appears to have grown an extra petal, but look closely and you'll see the Brimstone butterfly...
Here it's en route to the cowslips...
and it's arrived...
The
Xylocopa Violacea was far too quick for me to photograph but I did manage a few slightly out of focus shots of the hummingbird hawkmoth as it went from the dafffodils to the hyacinths...
Later in the day we saw a Comma butterfly and Red Admiral neither of which kept still long enough to photograph.
Temperatures rose to 18c after lunch, the first warm day of the year. This, and the sudden flurry of insect activity took us by surprise - a very pleasant surprise!
