A Raptor and Eight Butterflies

Within moments of our leaving the house this morning for our usual gentle Sunday morning stroll, this bird passed over us. While it is evidently a raptor, its species is less clear. It might be a late-staying osprey or a hawk, but I think it's most likely be a harrier. From its silhouette, it could be a marsh harrier, but according to the RSPB's distribution map this species does not come this far north - so it's most likely to be a hen harrier.

It's very frustrating that the only pictures I could get were silhouettes from below as hen harriers aren't common here - in fact, I don't think we've seen one since leaving Suffolk..

I keep thinking that I'm seeing the last butterfly of the year in our garden, and then the weather, and the butterflies, prove me wrong. Yesterday we had some warm weather and bright sunny intervals, and the butterflies came out in even larger numbers than before - four peacocks, two red admirals, a painted lady and, for the first time in some weeks, a tortoiseshell.

Conditions towards the end of the afternoon must have been pretty marginal for any butterfly to be on the wing as I saw more and more finding the sunniest places to settle and extending their wings to catch the sun - except for....

....this red admiral which obviously thought that the dark undersides of its wings might absorb more heat. Wherever they chose to settle, I could then approach to within inches before they, very reluctantly, flew off, leaving me feeling bad for disturbing them.