Monday 27 April 2015

Night and day


It was extremely nippy last night and the tally of moths was accordingly slim; just two in the trap, a second Swallow Prominent and a Hebrew Character. This morning remained fresh 'til after 10am but it was lovely and sunny, so I carried out another reconnoitre of our coming Beating the Bounds walk.

Butterflies abounded and here are the few which were patient enough to wait for me to creep up on them with my camera: a female Orange Tip (only the males have the colour), a female Brimstone (ditto, in the sense of the male being sulphurous while the female is buttery), a Speckled Wood and two Small Tortoiseshells, one with its wings tightly folded and the second showing part of its lovely topwings.






I also spotted the new (for me) road sign at the top of the post but failed to discover how or why the road was deemed a failure, other than being bumpety and unkempt. Observe finally, the difference between a conventionally fertilised and an organic field of oilseed rape, a crop which is currently turning the Oxfordshire countryside male-Brimstone yellow.


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