Last week there were 13 newts in the pond, we couldn't move for holly blues and then the swifts were back.
Our first barbecue of the season was Sunday 3 May, so much pottering about in the garden sunshine. It's all happening out there now. Last week there were 13 newts in the pond, we couldn't move for holly blues and then the swifts were back. It's amazing that weather can be wholly different one year to the next, but the swifts ride the same winds and arrive at the same time regardless. Last year they arrived on 4 May, the year before on 2 May.
I can tell it's getting warmer when the bathroom window remains open all night without complaint from the females in the house. And with the window open we get visitors. This morning it was a brimstone moth, Opisthograptis luteolata, decorating the white wall tiles. Although this is an extremely common moth, it is a delight in its form and colours. Startlingly bright against the blank tiles, it is nevertheless very well camouflaged in a more natural setting, looking for all the world like a fading dead leaf. The photograph above doesn't really do it justice. Of course, when I took it down to the kitchen and forced it to sit on a large leaf, it refused to adopt a picturesque position.
It has a delicate jaunty flutter, hopping this way, then that, through the air. According to my guides the caterpillars feed on hawthorn, blackthorn, rowan and plum. Plenty of those in nearby gardens. I let it out of the back door at 10 o'clock at night and it rose up into the darkness, its ghostly colour flickering off into the void.
See more comments...
