Spring has sprung and how lovely it is! After all these years, I still get a kick from seeing my first Orange Tips and Holly Blues. I've not yet had time to stalk one of the latter in the hope that it may give a rare display of its vivid topwings rather than holding them closed, though the powder-blue undersides are delightful too. But here's a nicely co-operative Orange Tip for you, first from above as it draws the last nectar from the ageing daffy, and then delicate underside on a Milkmaid - the species' favourite flower - below.
Meanwhile, I've never seen so many Brindled Beauties in the trap as arrived last night - 32 of them, some looking extremely fresh, others the worse for wear and the one above still sound asleep, interestingly with its bushy antennae still out. I thought initially that it might be dead, but no. With them were another pair of obliging posers, a Swallow Prominent and a Pebble Prominent, left and right in the first picture below; and a Nut-tree Tussock in the second.
Oak Beauties continue to arrive too and I celebrated my first Brimstone moth brightening up the black walls of the bowl - and hooray that my new iPhone 13+ can keep its focus against that background. The student who borrowed my trap had a Brimstone in one of his catches a couple of nights ago and there will be plenty more to come.
Finally, here's an absolutely exquisite little Yellow-barred Brindle, one of the first of the year's two generations here in Southern England, with the second due in August and September. You can just see the reason for its name threading through the predominant olivey-green. In a few weeks, that lovely fresh colour will have faded and the whole moth will turn a drabber, dull yellow.
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