Sunday 3rd. April 2011

It turned out that I chose the best part of the day , mid morning , to do the first butterfly transect of the season at High Elms Country Park , now that the recording season is officially started . Parking up in the golf course car park , I first went to see if we 'down South' had caught up with 'up North' in the Butterbur/Petasites hybridus , in flower stakes . I can report that we may have been late starters , but 75/100 blooms were decorating the area which is managed for the species , probably the best show that I can remember . Leaving the car park , for the second time , a Mistle Thrush was seen feeding on Ivy , and across the road in the orchard , a Blackcap was trying to out-sing this Dunnock , perched at the top of one of the fruit trees . I managed a shot of the Dunnock , but no chance with the Blackcap . He was one of about six heard whilst on the transect . A single flyby Comma along the edge of the Conservation Field was the only record so far , and although Spring is only just started , life and dead situations are already happening , like when this fly decided to warm up on a fence post , not realising that the slit in the post was home to a spider . On the lane above the top car park , the Green Hellebores/Helleborus viridis , are giving a really good show this year . I had to wait until I reached Burnt Gorse before recording any further butterflies , but two male Brimstone , one caught just as it was taking off again , and a very confiding Small Tortoiseshell went into the notebook here . It is good to see the latter making a comeback , fingers crossed . The Orchid Glade didn't produce any record , but it was good to see the rosettes of the Common Spotted Orchid/Dactylorhiza fuchsii , pushing through . Plenty of birdsong all around the 2 hour transect , finishing with a Nuthatch almost directly over where I had parked . A flyby Peacock completed the transect as I was leaving the car park , giving a grand total of 5 butterflies of 4 species , things will get better . On the way home , along the bottom lane near the horse field , I sighted my first male Orange Tip of the year , and although chasing it half way back towards Keston , failed to get a shot - et tu Phil . At home this afternoon as more and more cloud rolled in from the West , I was cleaning the inside of the car whilst Carol was pottering in the back garden . A call of 'Orange Tip' from Carol , had me grabbing the camera and heading down the garden . Fluttering in the wind , the butterfly finally managed to settle on the cultivar version of Cuckoo Flower we have in a wet area . I got a few shots of the underwing , but looking at the sky , it was going to be some time before it would be tempted by a rise in temperature to open it's wings . After about one and a half hours , a brighter area was approaching and I went back with the camera and waited . Thinner cloud allowed a milky sun to warm things up a bit and the Orange Tip reacted , half opening it's wings , then with the sun disappearing again , closing them again . It was another half hour before a more sustained period of sun finally encouraged the open wing shot . Once it warmed up a bit , it flew off into a conifer , which offered more shelter than the top of the Cuckoo Flower .