In The Garden

Following my own lead that gardens are the best place to be for insects this year, I've spent a fair bit of time in my own.

The best day so far was yesterday, when I made a rather hurried contribution to the Big Butterfly Count, recording totals of Red Admiral 7, Peacock 7, Large White 5, Painted Lady 10, Comma 2, Green-veined White 2, Holly Blue 2, Humming Bird Hawk Moth 2

I don't think I saw a small white but it was a bit chaotic.

Clearly it is a painted lady year and it is currently being seen daily.

Painted Lady

Painted Lady (underwing)

I continue to find butterflies in compromising situations, which very much applies to two of the large whites in each others' clutches for more than ten minutes that I noticed.

Large Whites

It hasn't quite come out in the image but they had a strong yellowish sheen so that I first wondered if I'd uncovered a female brimstone.

An absentee from the party was however the small tortoiseshell, and I don't think I've seen one yet in the back garden at all.

I was however particularly chuffed to get a great video of one of the hummingbird hawk moths.  Unfortunately it was too big for blogger, so you'll have to look for my post on facebook today.

One minor disappointment was not being able to catch up with one of the holly blues, which again landed on the buddleia but didn't hang around.

Meanwhile my neighbours across the road think they are getting visited by a raven - and I think they may well be right.

Raven?

In fact the first shot I took showed a second beak behind the silhouette so maybe there's a pair...