Friday 11th May

Orange tips are now turning up quite regularly now, along with the other main whites.  On Tuesday I visited Thornley Woods for a general lookaround and in the vague hope of finally seeing a green woodpecker.

Speckled Wood on Wild Garlic

I didn't see the green woodpecker and it was the time of year still when butterflies are flying about (in search of mates?) more than settling.  As well as the main whites there were some (very) large whites and 10 -20 small brown butterflies fluttering along the woodland path.  I suspected they were speckled woods but it took some while before one settled long enough to convince me.  It's been an awful long while since I saw one, so I was well pleased.

After passing through a hedgerow crammed with willow warblers, I followed the riverside path along an attractive stretch of the Derwent and spotted a kestrel in a tree above some open ground.  As I got closer, it kept shuttling around between three different perches and diving down onto the grass.  I'm not sure what it was eating but it must have been pretty small and never hovered in the typical kestrel manner so that for a while I took it to be a sparrowhawk.

What struck me most was that it seemd completely undeterred by the arrival of various passers-by.  I thought this to be the fortunate result of having such a large amount of lush woodland that is so frequently visited. I don't think I could have expected to observe one for so long in Dumfries and Galloway.

Kestrel - with flies

Further along the river there was a green-veined white that seemed to be fascinated by the bankside mud.

This is certainly an area I will consider revisiting, especially as there are one or two stories about hairstreaks being sited. It also seems that the holly blue is a bit more common here.

Meanwhile I had some amusing attempts trying to get a photo of a magpie attacking the peanut feeder in the back garden. It didn't quite work, but here's another one preparing to move in...

Magpie