North Cave Wetlands

During the weekend we headed east to North Cave Wetlands, a Yorkshire Wildlife Trust reserve, where we counted 40+ Peacock along with a couple of Red Admiral nectaring on newly flowering Teasels.

A closer underwing view of the Red Admiral, showing the strong  contrast between the brightly marked forewing and the camouflaged hindwing. Usually it takes a little burst of flash to do justice to the colouring but strong sunshine helped illuminate the wing detail.

All were lovely fresh looking butterflies, with as many as 5 Peacocks per plant.

We saw the majority of Peacocks in this sheltered sunny ditch full of Teasels & Ragwort, bordered by hawthorn hedge,

and this, my first Painted Lady of the year amongst the Teasel.

 

Lawnswood Cemetery Sightings

During a sunny interval at Lawnswood Cemetery we spotted this Peacock basking graveside, I guess the stone retains some heat as they often perch on the stonework.

A Jay, a bird often seen at the Cemetery, seemed unperturbed by our presence as we stood still to watch it hop from stone to stone for a good few minutes.

Whilst watching the Jay, a Nuthatch flew onto a nearby tree and proceeded to check out gaps in the tree trunk. We watched it remove leaves lodged in the nooks and crannies presumably searching for a tasty snack. Here you can see it tossing aside a leaf removed from the split in the trunk.

Butterfly behaviour - Peacocks and pushchairs

At Nan Whin's Wood in Tong I saw this discerning Peacock butterfly alight onto a piece of litter. On reading the page entitled 'Argos guide to Pushchairs' which advises on purchasing the perfect pushchair for your little one, it was at this point I realised that there's so much I've yet to learn about butterfly behaviour.....

Surely there's some word play around the theme of Argos/Argus, but it evades me, answers on a postcard please.

Adel churchyard sightings

On a visit to St John the Baptist Churchyard in Adel I spotted a pair of Jays sunning themselves. The first one basking on the ground made little effort to rouse itself until disturbed by visitors heading in its direction at which it hopped into the holly tree above while the other moved into dappled shade on a nearby headstone.

After last weeks first butterfly sighting of the year at Rodley, I saw two more Small Tortoiseshells in the churchyard and watched a couple of Peacocks spiral up into the sky, despite my best efforts to track them down I managed to find one only for a brief moment pointing the camera in its direction before it disappeared again.

Lawnswood Cemetery, Leeds

A wander around the grounds of Lawnswood Cemetery on a sunny afternoon gave us a view of the first Red Admiral of the year. I was pleased with this one because I've previously seen them much later in the season. This one (one of two) proved to be pretty bold and a bit of a show off, and I'm happy to have captured the detail on the underwing.

Bringing new meaning to 'a butterfly on the wing'.

On our return to the same sunny spot the Red Admiral was still there, the sun had moved round by this point so it was sunning itself with open wings on a bed of crisp, golden oak leaves.

A metre or so from the Red Admiral we watched a Holly Blue (two in two days!) flit around the upper branches of a sun drenched holly tree, too restless and too far out of reach for a pic. Within closer viewing distance, we spotted 6 Peacock (Inachis io), along the route, this one showing a little damage to its hindwing.

We must have seen over 30 Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria) butterflies throughout our wander, bathing in pools of light, and then spiralling high up into the canopies whenever a second butterfly invaded its patch.

Jays are a frequent sight, and today was no exception (10), other feathered inhabitants included Wren (5), Robin (4), Mistle Thrush (2), Wood Pigeon (12) Blackbird (6) Chaffinch (4) Great Spotted Woodpecker (1) Great Tit (10) Blue Tit (8) Long Tail Tit (2) Chiff Chaff (2) Magpie (7) Treecreeper (1) Crow (5).

Ending with a splash of colour, the pink blossom of Sargents Cherry (Prunus sargentii) enhanced by the backlit leaves of a Copper Beech in the background.



From my window

This morning, from an upstairs window we spotted a Peacock butterfly settle on the back of the house in full sun, where it remained for 5 minutes. It's the first butterfly to add to this year's list of sightings from the window, which is pretty good considering its a very small garden near a busy main road.

Other sightings include Goldcrest, Waxwing, Kestrel, Jay, Blue Tit, Goldfinch, Great Tit, Long Tail Tit, Blackbird, Robin, Wren, Greenfinch, Wood Pigeon, Magpie and a Pipistrelle Bat.   

Rodley Nature Reserve

On Saturday we enjoyed a gloriously warm afternoon jaunt to Rodley Nature Reserve. The grasses that had just started to flower last week were fully flowering today, and looked striking against a clear blue sky.

We stopped off for a cold drink at the Vistors Centre and marvelled at the webcam stream from the Blue Tit box. I think there were eight or nine babies, an adult appearing every few minutes, the volunteers reckon they'll have fledged by mid next week. From inside the Visitors Cente we could see this Crow sat on a gatepost open beaked in an attempt to cool down.


By the Dragonfly Ponds Large Red Damselflies were busily going about their business.

And here a ropey pic of a blue damselfly, perhaps a male Azure Damselfly? Slightly different to a Common Blue in which abdominal segments 8 and 9 are all blue. Any thoughts appreciated.



Butterfly sightings included 3 Green Veined White, 3 Small Tortoiseshell, 4 Speckled Wood, 3 Orange Tip, 2 Peacock, this one here sat close winged on a fence post, plus 8 unidentified Whites on the wing.


From the lookout point overlooking the Wet Grassland we could see this Roe Deer on the opposite bank, it stood for a minute before bounding over the verge towards the riverbank, providing us with our first sighting of a Roe Deer at Rodley, thank you very much.

Friday wander around St Chad's

Today's lunchtime wander to St Chad's churchyard was accompanied by a chillsome wind and the occasional burst of sunshine. On the way, on campus two Mistle Thrush collected food from the ground under the emerging canopies of beech and cherry. The pair are presumably nesting nearby as they're are a familiar sight, boldly holding their own against the local Jackdaws.

In the churchyard a Song Thrush surveyed the grounds from above. (At least I think this ones a Song Thrush, it appeared smaller and rounder).

After a couple of lazy circuits of the churchyard I decided it was probably too breezy for butterflies, and smiled to myself as almost immediately I spotted a Peacock butterfly on the ground no more than half a metre away. Other than an occasional adjustment, angling itself to make the most of the sun, and a brief moment on the wing it remained there for the rest of my stay. I imagine the surrounding vegetation provided welcome shelter from the breeze.

On the way home I couldn't resist a pic of a nearby Lilac bush coming into blossom.

Askham Bog

This weekend we enjoyed an afternoon jaunt to Askham Bog near York, the weather was warm and cloudy with bursts of intermittent sunshine. During our first visit in September last year we were lucky enough to observe a Water Vole, today's highlight were two Brimstones (Gonepteryx rhamni), a first for me and I was chuffed to come away with a pic of one. My guess is that this one is a female which have more of a greenish yellow tinge than the males which are bright yellow.

To quote Richard South FES in his book The Butterflies of the British Isles “Probably this insect to which the name “butter-coloured fly” contracted into butterfly, was first given.” The Brimstone lays eggs on the developing leaves of buckthorn and alder, leaves the chrysalis at the end of July, hibernates in evergreen shrubs and trees, appears in February to May.

Throughout the walk we encountered six Peacocks (Nymphalis io) on the wing, the first looked very tatty, although the subsequent Peacocks looked a lot fresher. They all displayed a tendency to follow the wooden walkway, landing on the decked surface nearby to bask in the sunshine, very obliging thank you.

A little less obliging but more profuse 8 or so male Orange Tipped butterflies, ever on the go and deftly evading me at every pass.

This flowering grass was a common sight, and very striking, Citybirding helped me to identify it as Mountain Sedge (Carex montana).

The familiar hammering of a Great Spotted Woodpecker drew our attention to the treetops, and although too obscured for a decent pic we could at least identify it as a male by the distinctive red patch on the back of the head.

As I've said before I really struggle to identify warblers and only managed a dodgy pic of this one in flight.......blink and you'll miss it.

A carpet of Lesser Celandine attracted a host of insects and gave the dappled shade of the banks a springtime zing with its bright buttery yellow flowers.

Adel Dam Nature Reserve

On Saturday morning we took Maureen along to Adel Dam Nature Reserve. After hearing that she'd never seen a Woodpecker we thought it the most likely place to strike lucky. Good call....we could hear one as we approached the reserve and within a minute a Great Spotted Woodpecker was overhead, we observed it for a moment before it flew off and another appeared in a treetop less than a minute afterwards, mission accomplished.


So with the pressure off and time on our side, we spent a wee while in the first hide where we spotted three Peacock butterflies alternately basking in a Willow tree and landing on the ground in front of us, although nearer they were too obscured by foliage to get a decent pic. I remember seeing one or two Peacocks last year in the same spot. Also on the feeders, Blue Tit, Coal Tit, Chaffinch, Robin and an unexpected Reed Bunting which I haven't seen here before.



We walked round to the lakeside hide where a handful of Teal, Mallards & Coot occupied the lake, and a Long Tailed Tit was busy collecting nesting material in front of the hide. Continuing on through the reserve we spotted this woodland songbird that we think might be a Chiffchaff. I understand the warblers are difficult to identify by sight, so having listened a recording I'm pretty confident it sounded most like the bird we heard.