The sun was shining today, but I was only able to make an afternoon visit to the patch today. I was on the lookout for any signs of spring and I wasn't to be disappointed. I had gone out dressed for the cold, but there was some warmth in the March sun and I was soon feeling too overdressed! Completely in contrast to last year's bone-chilling March!
A small patch of springbeauty that grows in some body's hedge was flowering and I found a couple of single lesser celandine flowers in a couple of places I haven't seen before that were in full bloom. I disturbed a comma butterfly as I walked the footpath running down the side of the hospital. This is where I was hoping to catch an early chiffchaff, but, after an hour of searching, there was no sight nor sound of one.
A butterfly that has mostly been absent from my part of the Gaywood Valley is the small tortoiseshell. I would only have one record of a single butterfly each year until last year's mega summer. As happened across the country, the numbers of small tortoiseshells exploded in 2013 and I ended the year with the total number seen up in the hundreds. So it was nice to see one almost as soon as I started walking around Osier Marsh. I had a further 2 later on and yet another that was close to the Reffley Reservoir.
The reservoir was still very quiet and not much was going on. A number of great tits were having an almighty squabble at one end, and I had a brief view of a large rudd as it darted off out of sight.
I have seen the occasional bumblebee over the last few weeks, but they have all been frustratingly to high and too quick to ID. Until today, when I was finally able to track one down and ID a massive queen white-tailed bumblebee.
No comments:
Post a Comment