Well the recent sunny weather and rise in temperatures has certainly provoked further life in the garden.
Butterflies have made a most welcome appearance with two Springtome specialities turning up within a couple of days of each other. Firstly only our second ever brimstone flew in briefly settling for seconds and then went on its way. Then a pristine male orange tip only the third ever for the garden. More predictably a few worn peacock and commas, large and small white and a small tortoiseshell.
Bee flies have continued to appear and our bee hotel has got visitors already.
Two hedgehogs on the trail cam gave some promise of another attempt at brreding-only time will tell. Tadpoles continue to thrive in the pond and woodpigeons are probably sat on eggs.
The dawn chorus is reaching its crescendo with robins starting in the pitch black soon to be joined by what sounds like hundreds of blackbirds and then ends with a mixture of house sparrows, wrens and dunnock-something to behold on these Spring mornings.
The warm weather has also brought out some mosquito type flies. Backlit by the evening sunshine they present an interesting and challenging photo opportunity.
Finally for now I have been experimenting with trying to photograph our local bats. There is a narrow window of opportunity from the sun going down (at about 8 pm) and the light disappearing completely at around 8.30. It involves getting a high shutter speed in low light by whacking up the ISO. Not always easy and very much a work in progress. I think there will be a half decent shot to be had if I persevere.
As the weather warms up there is plenty more to look forward to and indeed be thankful for. We wont be locked down forever, there is still a lot to be thankful for and a lot of it is literally right on our doorsteps.
Peacock Butterfly
Brimstone (record shot)
Bee Fly
Bee Fly
Bee Fly
Bee Fly
Comma
Orange Tip
Hedgehog (taken on trailcam)