Blue Skies

It is as if Nature, puzzled by these continuous blue skies, has stopped to draw breath. Amongst the flowers, those whites and yellows of early Spring, seen in the gorse, snowdrops, daffodils, celandine, dandelions and daisies, are now so prolific they hardly deserve notice - except that the gorse is unusually spectacular this year - and there's nothing new to take their place. Similarly, in....

....the bird world, the calls of the residents, blackbird, thrush, chaffinch and so many others, now blend with the only migrant returnees so far, the chiffchaff, above, pied wagtail and whitethroat. Surely by now we should have heard a willow warbler?

In the fungus world the only species to have given us great pleasure through the winter is scarlet elfcap, though only a few tired specimens of that remain, yet....

....there's no sign of anything new except this lone specimen of a species I can't identify.

At least the fine weather has encouraged a few butterflies. It was good to see this tortoiseshell taking advantage of our many semi-wild garden pansies which have come on fast in this weather. So far this year we've counted two peacocks and two tortoiseshells: I do hope this is a better year for the butterflies, as they sorely need it.

With the coming of Spring, and the proliferation of leaves, seeing the local red squirrels will become increasingly difficult. This one was out this morning, chasing a rival which wanted to muscle in on the nut feeders.