Saturday 24 April 2010

Kirkstall and Adel findings


First port of call today was Weetwood Police Station, not as a result of any wrong-doing but to check out the carpets of Anmone nemorosa in the car park, the masses of beautiful pink tinged petals reach skywards on delicate stems, casting star shaped shadows on the foliage below. The shape and colour reminds me of a Clematis montana flower.




Then over to Adel Churchyard, full of daffodils in bloom, thinking it might be a good spot to spy butterflies the only sightings were two white species on the wing, and they never ever seem to rest. A couple of Song Thrush were feeding, this one had its mouthful while the other continued to pull worms from the grassed paths. Elsewhere we spotted a Nuthatch, Blue Tit, Chaffinch, Long Tailed Tit, Blackbird and a female Mallard.




Venturing on, we spotted 8 Lapwing, one with 3 chicks, 7 Curlew, a Kestrel, a Hare, an inconspicuous Small Tortoiseshell, 2 Red Kites and a Skylark that obligingly provided the soundtrack to our wanderings.


We headed home ready for a cup of tea and a Betty's Fat Rascal. On reaching the doorstep something caught my eye, a Speckled Wood butterfly landed on the yellow leaves of Choisya ternata, Mexican Orange Blossom. A wonderful characteristic of a Speckled Wood is that they'll perch and pause just long enough to get a couple of pics and it kindly presented me with my first garden butterfly ID of the year.




4 comments:

  1. Lovely clear and bright shots of the Speckled Wood Linda. How on earth did you get it to stay still long enough?

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  2. The Speckled Wood photos are great Linda.
    Cram that front garden with butterfly loving plants.

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  3. My first look in on your blog which I reckon equals yours to Birds2blog as I don't recall seeing you there before Linda but thanks for that and for your comment regarding the amazing Y6K.

    If you did visit 'me' before my sincere apologies for not recognising this.

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  4. Hello Phil, thank you. Its sheer luck, I seem to have reasonable good fortune with Speckled Wood for some reason.

    Citybirding, that sounds like a very good idea, I'll keep you posted on how I get on.

    Hello Pete, thanks for stopping by, I thought your post was wonderful & recounted it to a friend just this morning.

    Best wishes all, Linda

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