O, You Beauty

A nice surprise this morning when I added another species to my garden list. Having settled down into my chair with bins and camera close to hand ready for the next episode of the Magpie show I was not expecting that much of interest. A couple of House Martins were my first since the weekend but could well have been the same two birds. What I initially took to be a large gull proved on closer inspection to be an Osprey, a garden first! Although distant it hung around long enough to get a satisfactory ID as it circled a couple of times before carrying on in a southerly direction. Very nice indeed though I hope that it hasn't used up all of my luck during this lockdown.

Bluebells

Away from the garden and on my exercise walk to Weldon I stopped at Ironpits Wood to admire the fine show of Bluebells, this is my best site for them locally that I know off and always merits a stop. Further on more Blackcaps have clearly arrived as they added their voices to that of Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs. Not too many interesting birds were noted today but butterflies continue to prosper in the warm conditions.

Orange-tip and Holly Blues

Stars of the show were a pair of Holly Blues whose almost tantric and lengthy pairing paid testament to their stamina, it should guarantee a decent second brood showing. Orange-tips were the commonest species today with seven males observed while Brimstones weighed in with a total of five (1 female) A brace each of both Small White and Small Torty as well as a Peacock rounded off today's count. Despite the good results I'll be giving Weldon a miss for a bit as a growing number of exercisers is making social distancing a little harder to manage at the moment.