Saturday, April 01, 2006

First butterfly of 2006


A red admiral with a large chunk out of its wing drifted across M3 in the first of the April sunshine and settled for a while in the box bush. This is early for this species and it had probably overwintered. So far as I know, the butterfly is still not considered a breeding resident in Britain and these occasional overwintered examples are not thought to be able to reproduce.

A female blackbird went hopping right across the quadrat with some bits of grass an moss in her beak. It was the one that is quite tame and often comes close to me. After visiting M3 she concentrated her efforts on some wet moss in a puddle, sploshing about like a child in the mud as she pulled and tugged at desireable strands.

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