Winter has arrived here in northern Scotland. The air temperature last night dropped to two degrees above zero laying a frost in sheltered hollows, and today's midday temperature only just made it to ten Celsius - yet in the brief minutes of warm sunshine a red admiral was doing the rounds of the remaining verbena flowers in our garden.
I stood for some minutes watching it. Every movement was slow and, when I approached, it ignored me, as if feeding was as much as it could manage.
If all goes well, this beautiful butterfly will find somewhere safe and secluded in which to hibernate over our long winter, continuing to emerge briefly on warm days to feed.
Red Admirals were always one of my boyhood favourites, together with the Wall Brown and Comma. To see them ascend to the top of the Big Butterfly Count makes them no less special and I look forward to their early appearance in the spring if they manage to hibernate successfully.
ReplyDeleteJust seen another one outside the sunroom window - it's cold out there, and blowing half a gale! These are tough butterflies.
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