2021 Spring has Sprung.

 Yesterday it really felt as though Spring had arrived with wall to wall sunshine and, for once, light winds. A morning walk with Clare didn't produce the hoped for butterfly, although many Bumble Bees and a Wasp were seen along with some gorgeous Spring Lambs.

Back home and a Red Admiral flew through the garden, my 3rd butterfly of the year and 2nd species. I then decided to do yet more scrub clearance up on the Downs before the nesting season gets going and 2 more butterflies showed themselves. Firstly, a lovely Comma, followed by an even nicer Small Tortoiseshell. The Small Tortoiseshell was only seen in very small numbers in the area last year so hopefully seeing one flying strongly early in the season is hopefully a good sign.

No photos were taken of the butterflies as I wasn't in a photo mode as I had the scrub clearing gear so I have included here some early season photos of the 3 species from past years!!

Small Tortoiseshell.

Comma.

Red Admiral.

Up and Running!!

 On such a fabulous day it was great to get my butterfly year up and running.

Following several sessions of scrub clearance when I had seen the odd Wall Brown larvae I decided today to go and have a look to see if the early signs of better numbers was still holding up.

My highest ever count of these larvae was a couple of different counts of 40 a couple of years ago. Today it didn't take me very long to reach that number, and after reaching 50 I called a halt. Many of the tussocks had multiple larvae in them and I have never found it so easy to spot them.

During the count I also had 2 Peacock flying around me, and fortunately one of them landed so I could grab some photos. Both were different to the Peacock I had seen on the last day of 2020. That one had some wing damage that todays butterflies didn't have.

Peacock. 

Wall Brown larva.