Bees, butterflies and ladybirds are coming out of hibernation early this spring.
Whilst cleaning this week I noted that the ladybird huddle (mainly harlequins) in the top right hand corner of our windows was beginning to stir. Some are still somnolent (or dead, perhaps?) but the lively ones climbing the lace curtains were extricated and dropped onto the outside windowsill to make their own way.
Down on the plot this afternoon I saw three Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae) butterflies, one solitary and the other two fluttering in what seemed like a courtship flight. My reference book tells me that they emerge from hibernation in March to May. The nettles, their food plant, are just beginning to reappear on the cleared area that was once the 'wildlife hedge'. My husband also spotted a Brimstone (Gonepteryx rhamni) in a local lane.
Finally I was glad to see a large bumblebee on the flowers of our Rosemary Miss Jessup.
On every visit I inspect our pond. The toad that lives next to the small greenhouse was awake when we tidied up around him or her but no spawn as yet, and no frogspawn. We wait and see.
No comments:
Post a Comment