in the meadows

soft light and a myriad of spiders' webs filled the meadows early this morning, as did the chattering of a family of long tailed tits enjoying the warmth of the sun

occasional visitors

Another very occasional visitor to the peanuts is this nuthatch, adopting its characteristic upside down feeding posture, much to the surprise of the juvenile blue tit.

butterfly news

just in time for the big butterfly count (see link) more species of butterfly are appearing; today in the meadows we saw large whites, small whites, meadow browns, ringlets, silver washed fritillaries, small skippers, and red admirals, in addition to the three above from the top a bright comma , a small copper, and a painted lady showing her under wear. No blues, tortoiseshells, brimstones or peacocks possibly because it was quite early in the morning.

a rare sight

We know that hedgehogs live in our garden but we only see them very occasionally at night. It is extremely unusual to see them ambling around in broad daylight like this one, completely unconcerned by our (four dogs and one person) return. The rain has brought out a lot of slugs so maybe this hedgehog was too busy snacking to notice the time of day.

in greenscombe woods

It was a warm sunny day but not much to see apart from cornish bladderseed and the strange slender variety of betony that is only to be found in these woodland meadows.

just like a leaf

the first of the second generation of brimstones to appear this year. The first silver washed fritillaries have also appeared in the last few days