Butterflies

You're looking at something rare and rather precious up here in the north-east of Scotland - blue sky. It's been around a couple of days and we've enjoyed basking in its accompanying warmth - the temperature reached a mighty 24C yesterday - but today is grey and wet and drecht again. The sun did, at least, last long enough for the farmer to cut the upper rabbit field, presumably to make haylage, and....

....a couple of hoodies enjoyed picking through it for insects and grubs but the biggest change was in the butterflies - in that we actually saw some.

We haven't seen a red admiral in some weeks, but this one was on the thistles by the rabbit field, as were....

....a couple of common blues, the first time for some time we've seen this species in our local fields.

We also spotted two rather motheaten painted ladies, two speckled woods, and several medium-sized brown butterflies none of which stayed still long enough for a picture.

While the butterflies may have been out in the fields they certainly weren't visiting our garden, despite the wealth of flowers they have to choose from. On Wednesday, despite bright sunshine, I didn't see a single butterfly in the garden and yesterday I saw just one, this very smart tortoiseshell feasting on the marjoram.

Today's drizzle didn't prevent a couple of speckled woods being on the wing in Speckled Wood, making me wonder whether this species is becoming unusually tolerant of our wet weather, but in searching for more butterflies I had a fleeting view of a young roe deer