Butterfly Year 2019

Butterfly Year 2019

Common Blue

(male) June 2019

Map of areas covered

email for observations

info@londonbutterflysurvey.org.uk

Jan 2019

The year started in typical fashion with some early sightings by Howard, who's observations on his Bickley allotment near Virgin Active have been an invaluable addition to www.londonbutterflysurvey.org.uk. 

Most unusual was a painted lady in late January. Picture shows a butterfly that arrived here in June, one of the many that migrated from the near continent, Originating in Africa and breeding in successive generations the painted lady has years when it arrives here in the UK in millions.

Painted lady 

(influx - June)  

Feb 2019

By mid February this unusual sighting was followed by some of the more expected butterflies - Brimstones in High Elms and small tortoiseshells in Bickley on the allotment behind the Virgin Gym.

By the 17th February temperatures were climbing into the high teens 19º - and an all too obvious familiarity with the elevated temperatures in 2018 which after a short dip the sunny weather returned and provoked an outing of over wintering butterflies.

Comma 

  Mar 2019

Temperatures during March returned to more normal levels of 10º - 15º which meant no recording until the 19th when Brimstone butterflies were seen in Bromley Common and High Elms, where ragged Peacock butterflies also emerged.

Contractors instructed by Idverde to avoid cutting East of the Ravensbourne. This was after a false  start, similar to last year, when the entire area was decimated and several species lost when the contractors left the West side of the river, much less abundant in butterflies. Aquatic life still not back to pre 2015 levels when it was contaminated by motor show toilet effluent.

The last week in March saw temperatures rise to the high teens again and a whole list of butterflies were on the wing:

• Brimstone 10/15 butterflies peaking - WhiteHill - Lullingstone - High Elms - Bromley Common
• Small White (single) - Bromley Common
• Orange Tip (m)  (in singles) -  High Elms - Bromley Common -Bickley
• Holly Blue (single)
• Red admiral (single)
• Peacock (several, range  5-8) in WhiteHill - Lullingstone - High Elms
• Comma (several, range  5-8) in WhiteHill - Lullingstone - High Elms - Bromley Common

By the 28th March the clearing had a great tit occupying the blue nest box and frogspawn was appearing in local ponds. Long tailed tits were busy establishing a territory and had started building behind the clearing.

Holly Blue

Orange tip female

April 2019

By this time, mid month we had installed our new hide and trail cam which began recording the activity in the Scraginhall woodland clearing. It started off slowly but gathered pace as the month proceeded with the appearance of foxes and badgers from a nearby set. Deer also entered the clearing, first a male playing with the oak and later a pair of females frolicking and racing around. https://vimeo.com/352096958

April temperatures were once again modest until the 17th when uplifted to the high teens peaking at 20º around the 18th/19th Nick Davey joined me for his first foray to White Hill, Fackenden Down and Fackenden Bank, where I did so much original work in the 1970/1980's. 

• Brimstone - White Hill, Fackenden 5/8 - Green Street Green/Pratts Bottom A21 (while driving)
• Green Veined White (single) - Bickley
• Orange Tip (m)  (2/3) -  Fackenden - High Elms
• Green Hairstreak - (2) Fackenden Down, Dell, on Field Maple
• Holly Blue - (1) Bickley
• Peacock (several, range  5-8) in White Hill, Fackenden - High Elms
• Comma (several, range  5-8) in WhiteHill, High Elms
• Speckled Wood (1) Bromley Common

Long tailed tits lining nest in the hawthorn near the clearing. Activity in the rebuilt box in the willow. Lots of activity on the trail cam.

By mid month there were at least two blackcap sites and a wren in a large oak by the fence - later predated from below as is so often the case in this part of the woods. Lots of activity around the feeders and hide including a pair of shy jays and a robin.

May 2019 

Found eggs in a blackcaps nest by accident when flushing the bird from nettles, later disturbed another blackcap that simply hopped of the nest in a blackthorn hung around until I had got a mirror above the nest then hopped back on - this was by the entrance oak beyond the new planted scrub, where I had closed off the path using dead blackthorn.

Blackcaps nest with typical clutch of eggs

Butterflies on the wing

• Large skipper single fresh emergent ******

• Grizzled Skipper 5-8

• Dingy Skipper 15-20

• Brimstone 10-20

• Small white 3-5

• Green veined white single
• Orange tips 1-2's
• Green Hairstreak single
• Holly blue singles
• Small blue in abundance 30-40 in single stretch of Fackenden Bank
• Small copper 1
• Common Blue 10-15 Fackenden Bank
•  Brown argus 5-8 Fackenden Bank
• Peacock 5-8
• Comma 5-8
• Speckled Wood 3
• Meadow brown single BC HE
• Small Heath 5-8 Fackenden Bank

large skipper

five spot burnet moth

brown argus

Small blue

Small Copper

June 2019

Common Blue male

• Grizzled Skipper

• Dingy Skipper

• Large Skipper

• Small Skipper

• Brimstone

• Small White

• Green Veined White

• Green Hairstreak

• Small Copper

• Small Blue

• Common Blue

• Brown Argus

• Holly Blue

• White Admiral

• Red admiral

• Painted Lady

• Small Tortoiseshell

• Peacock

• Comma

• Dark Green Fritillary

• Speckled Wood

• Marbled White

• Meadow Brown

• Small Heath

• Ringlet

Regular visits to High Elms, Fackenden, Bromley Common, Elmfield and Lullingstone Country Park yielded some exceptional data, especially in respect of the small blue butterfly, which was prolific in a way not previously experienced by me, with a colony of at least 40-50 individuals over the whole stretch of its breeding location on Fackenden Down. Also prevalent was the dingy skipper butterfly, which was present in a population in excess of a 100 across the entire Fackenden Down, far outnumbering the Grizzled Skipper which appeared in ones and two's. The green hairstreak was also present as individuals along the hedgerow at the foot of the down on whortleberry. At the end of the month a visit to Hayes Farm coppiced area yielded a solitary White Admiral, later unfortunately met with the allegation that High Elms management had inexplicably removed honeysuckle, the butterfly's food plant from the woodland. Meadow browns and Ringlets started to appear in all locations            

Small Blue mating

Ringlet underwing

Grizzled Skipper

July 2019

2019 butterfly year spreadsheet to July - click for enlarged view

10th July

High Elms -

• Small skipper
• Large skipper
• Large white
• Small white
• White letter hairstreak
• Comma
• Dark green fritillary
• Silver washed fritillary
• Speckled wood
• Marbled white
• Ringlet
• Meadow brown

Hayes plantation

• White Admiral 


Marbled whites were everywhere on the golf course and in the cleared areas. Both fritillaries were on the wing in sparse populations of two and three butterflies, the silver washed fritillary most in evidence in the woodland clearings, but with dark green fritillaries in the power line field - where I met Jeff Boswell, a stalwart butterfly man and somewhat kindred soul. Sharing anecdotes can be time consuming, but by delaying Jeff, i'm pleased to say a compensation happened which took the form of a fresh white letter hairstreak in the small managed clearing on the footpath to Green street Green - where I had spent half an hour just before, searching and not finding.

One solitary female white admiral at the intersection in Hayes Farm plantation.

White letter hairstreak - High Elms

©Jeff Boswell 

Large skipper

Marbled White topwing

Marbled White underwing

Dark Green Fritillary

Silver Washed Fritillary

comma underwing

Shaggy Mushroom 

August 2019

High Elms

First Week -By contrast with the previous entry, the marbled whites are now limited to one single butterfly, seen today in the orchid field. The dark green fritillary was absent, but the signature butterfly for High Elms, the silver washed fritillary, was abundant in the dissected clearing, on burnt gorse and in the new buddleia clearing, estimated total population close to a hundred butterflies. Fresh peacocks are flying in all clearings with a total population of at least 50 butterflies, no tortoiseshells but a singular fresh red admiral and painted lady. Meadow browns continue to revive with the dissected clearing having an abundance of new and very faded butterflies.

• Small skipper 1
• Common Blue 2
• Brown argus 6
• Large white 3
• Brimstone 20
• Small white 10
• Comma 10
• Silver washed fritillary 100
• Red admiral 2
• Painted lady 1
• Peacock 40
• Comma 20
• Speckled wood 2
• Marbled white 1
• Meadow brown 100+
• Gatekeeper 100+

Common Blue male emergent second generation 

Peacock emergent

Silver Washed Fritillary 

Brown Argus 

White Letter Hairstreak (29th July)

Brimstone male

Second Week - before the storm. As with the previous entry, the marbled whites are now limited to one single butterfly at High Elms, though absent from Bromley Common and Fackenden. At Fackenden Down, the sudden sun and warmth produced some unexpected butterflies, out to feed after the hiatus of overcast skies and before Friday's storms. The dark green fritillary was there, in two's and three's, still energetic, but badly worn and tattered. The small blue was also present in two's and three's, the common blues also, but more numerous including a very blue female (below). The Brown argus was out in force on the plots both sides of the lane, but the signature butterfly for Fackenden Bank could hardly have been more numerous, small clouds fluttering up at every few paces, numerous enough to have to avoid underfoot as they rested on the pathways. As with the previous entry, the marbled whites are now limited to one single butterfly at High Elms, though absent from Bromley Common and Fackenden. The silver washed fritillary was abundant as before in the dissected clearing, on burnt gorse and in the new buddleia clearing, estimated total population now lower than before, maybe 50 butterflies as an estimate. Fresh peacocks are now limited to a few butterflies, feeding avidly in the clearings. No tortoiseshells, or red admirals, or painted lady butterflies and only an odd fresh comma or two on view. Meadow browns continue on in all spaces, but the gatekeeper is on the decline.

• Small skipper (1) FD
• Common Blue FD
• Brown argus FD FB HE
• Small copper
• Small blue FD
• Chalk Hill Blue FB FD
• Small white 
• Brimstone  FB HE
• Comma HE
• Silver washed fritillary HE
• Dark green fritillary FD
• Peacock HE FD
• Comma HE
• Marbled white HE
• Meadow brown
• Gatekeeper

Common Blue female 

Brown Argus

Chalk Hill Blue m

Chalk Hill Blue f

Small Blue m

AUGUST 19th/20th

A Sunday stroll looking for fungi and expecting rain resulted in an unexpected burst of sunshine and a butterfly transect on Elmfield, where the prescribed lack of cutting has had great results for the second generation common blue - a success all round this year. A day later, a visit to High Elms on Monday with improving weather still got me soaked. This was followed by a similar deliberate outing Tuesday to Fackenden with now much improved weather after the relative hiatus of the previous fortnights changeable and often destructive wet and stormy conditions. Surprisingly, the hiatus in the warm August weather, did not create the sort of disruption to butterflies I expected. 

Monday was highlighted by a meeting with Fred OHare who reported clouded yellows on Burnt Gorse and also accounts of the brown hairstreak breeding at Keston, where over a hundred eggs were collected and redistributed on spinosa that was NOT going to be flailed, as the hedge on which the were found soon was. I also met Donna Cook of Idverde who is taking a keen interest in the butterfly life of High Elms and reported another site for the white letter hairstreak where there were larvae and also passed on some spreadsheets of sightings, which I will include on the website and data sheets. Notably the silver washed fritillary was still doing well and was active in all the clearings. Common blue butterflies were scarce on Burnt Gorse and it is hard to imagine looking at the field now what a cropping it had overwinter. The complexion of Fackenden Bank could not have been more different, overgrown, but with chalk hill blues in abundance. The star on Fackenden Down is the brown argus, which is present in large numbers wherever its foodplant grows. 

Butterflies


• Common blue FD
• Holly Blue HE
• Brown argus FD FB HE
• Small copper FD
• Chalk Hill Blue FB FD
• Small white FD HE FB BC
• Brimstone  FB HE FD
• Silver washed fritillary HE FB
• Red admiral FD
• Painted lady FD BC
• Comma HE
• Meadow brown FC HE BC
• Small Heath
• Gatekeeper
• Small heath

 brimstone f

 brown argus

 common blue 

small copper

  chalk hill blue f

AUGUST 29th

High Elms 

A short walk onto the meadow opposite the golf club opened up a new and more accessible area.

The wind was keeping the butterflies in check but there were a few common blues, a small heath, declining meadow browns and a gatekeeper. On the way back to the club however, a fresh speckled wood was sheltering in the little orchard meadow opposite the lodge.

• Small White

• Common Blue

• Small Heath

• Meadow Brown

• Speckled wood 

AUGUST 30th 

Fackenden 

As anticipated, the populations of mid summer butterflies on all three sites are now in decline. The star performer however is still the chalk hill blue, but it was interesting how the males had moved down the bank in the afternoon sun. In the morning they are found at the top of the bank, presumably because as the sun sets on the West horizon they move into the last rays of the sun. The common blue is still doing well, mid second generation. The brown argus was less evident, but I saw a female egg laying. The meadow brown is diminishing and there is a mixture of very old butterflies and some far fresher butterflies. Day flying moths were in evidence on the downland and the buzzard from the other week was flying lower than formerly. No brimstone butterflies, fritillaries or small blues  

• Small White

• Small Copper

• Common Blue

• Chalk Hill Blue

• Brown Argus

• Small Heath

• Meadow Brown

The privet larvae have burrowed down and I coincided this with printing some new moth pictures for the wall.

August 31st 2019

Red letter day - new species for the area - Brown Hairstreak on Jackass Lane Keston. Pictures thanks to Jeff Boswell.

September 13th 2019


Transects at White Hill and High Elms.

Despite the lovely late summer weather with temperatures in the twenties only a few straggling butterflies remained to take advantage. The strongest flyers were the red admirals who seemed intent on some sort of journey, though it's overstating it to think these fresh butterflies were flying south back to France, some were warming on paths, others feeding on the nectar bearing Ivy flowers. Brimstones were tempted onto the wing on burnt gorse where a pair of males were fluttering and feeding on the late flowering scabious. There was one female common blue in the orchid field I rescued from a spiders web but it was flying very weakly.

Fackenden Bank also had a few stragglers - chalk hill blues, mostly female, with a couple of late emerging males and one brown argus. The Down was similar with meadow browns still most in evidence, with a few common blues and two small heaths. A female common blue was by the gate weakly flying around the bramble accompanied by a comma.

• Brimstone HE
• Large white HE FACK
• Small white HE FACK
• Common blue HE FACK
• Chalk Hill Blue FACK
• Brown argus HE FACK
• Red admiral HE FACK
• Comma HE FACK
• Speckled wood HE FACK
• Meadow Brown FACK HE BG
• Small Heath  FACK HE BG

Autumn 2015 - Indoors and Out

For my North American friends

Autumn  has been wet and mild and the woods are full of fungi

Strange and wonderful - the helvella

Warted like sunflower seeds but best not eaten

 Amanita citrina - a palid yellow fungus

 These are the stuff of magic - elf caps

 This is where the myth of Father Christmas came from - Amanita muscaria, the magic mushroom that makes reindeer fly (after they eat them on the tundra where they grow in profusion) and making the animals leap around as if flying.

this is edible

this one will make you sick





I have spent time indoors decorating my living space to make it as calm and soothing as possible - here is my newly decorated kitchen - begged, borrowed and stolen costing just £50.

Nest Sites 2013

Great Tit with tick attached to the eye (autumn)

Typical Great Tit clutch of seven eggs

April/May

My attempt to re-site the low box came in time for it to weather last night's storm. It was as I left it - straight and secure and replete with a typical clutch of seven great tits eggs. The eggs are laid on a daily cycle until the clutch is complete, then the bird will sit and incubate for about fourteen days, when the eggs will hatch young. The susceptibility to predation by a whole series of animals and birds is somewhat obviated by the titmice family by the device of laying and rearing in a secluded tree hole or nets box. I took this shot with a minimum of intrusion while the bird was absent from the nest, by carefully placing the top of my mobile phone through the open slot in the nestbox. This particular bird has a fascination with brightly coloured and metallic wool - I have no idea where it can derive.

Blue Tit lays up to ten eggs

As the cold days of May wore on, and after the frantic and unusually rapid mating and building spree of April, a relative quiet returned to the woods. This was broken here and there by the disconcerted and broken calls of the hedge accentor, an exceptionally early nest builder.  The quiet period coincided with not only the suppression of activity caused by the cold weather, but also the incubation period of the birds on eggs. The end of May saw a turnaround in all fortunes, as the sun shone and temperatures rose. The sporadic rain combined to spur the abundant growth of the belated trees and flowers and by the end of the month all the passarine nests had young and activity had once again returned, with the woods ringing to an outpouring of territorial male bird song. 

Nuthatch is a hole nesting bird in rough unmanaged woodland

Butterfly Sightings 2013

Weather charts are an almost infallible guide to butterfly emergence and behaviour. March 2013 showed a continuation of the weather patterns we have endured through most of 2012 which resulted in the wettest spring and summer for the UK on record, governed it is supposed by a shift in the northerly jet stream. Predictably the 5th and 6th of March were the only days when butterflies would have commonly be seen.

5th March BC

Brimstone m
Small Tortoiseshell (Howard)

April 2013

With temperatures picking up mid month, butterflies became prevalent, and in at least the numbers they were recorded in previous years.

April 20th 2013

Small Tortoiseshell
Comma (4)
Peacock (1)
Brimstone m (1+)

April 21st

Small White
Holly Blue (Hugh)


April 23rd

Brimstone f (1)

April 25th

Speckled Wood ?

  

The comma

The comma has come to replace the small tortoiseshell as the commonest of the Spring butterflies.

April 27th

A showery day with breaks of sun, but the chill of the morning air has prevented the butterflies from flying during the early part of the day.

The first thing I saw was a neighbour  cutting nettles from exactly the place the small tortoiseshell was seen earlier in the week. I explained to Mary, who is a keen gardner, that removing plants from the wild was an offence and that it was possible she was jeopardising the chances of the eggs that might be on the nettles. These thoughtless acts of petty vandalism are common in the local area of Bromley and are as equally perpetrated by the local council as by the residents. April is a prime month for nesting birds, but the council have seen fit to institute tree clearance heedless of this fact.

April 29th

Still cool, but sunny. An afternoon in Elmfield waiting for Tiger Lily to get bored looking for shrews, that she will never find, at least yielded a good sight of the resident Kestrel, which had wing damage. Later, a pair of foraging swallows flew over, hoping, but probably in vain, for an evening meal of flying insects from the sun lit expanse of rough grass and herbage.

April 30th

Warming considerably - by noon the first sight this year of a weak flighted male orange tip - almost certainly a fresh emergent from the clearing (or nearby). Soon after, I saw it circling a prospective mate (though I am fairly sure it was a small white), then it flew through into the new clearing, settling first and then moving on among the newly cleared area towards the allotment oaks. Keen to foster the orange tip, I have done some seed planting and made extra space for the hedge garlic in the woody clearing. Despite this, the white headed congregation of previous years has stubbornly refused to show much more than the occasional leaf.

orange tip f

orange tip m

Orange Tip m
Small white
Peacock
  
There is a lot of bird activity and some probable nest sites, but nothing confirmed (apart from several wood pigeons). The little owl is on site and taking turns between the front roost and the high branches among the rear coppice, from which it suffers disturbance from myself and now dog walkers, who have broken through the hawthorn perimeter. Entering the clearing via the arched branches of the spinosa - from my first hide site under the oak, I came across a fine male black cap foraging among a mass of blackthorn freshly in blossom.

May 2013

2 May 2013

Dry and bright. An assortment of butterflies, notably though, no speckled wood butterflies - a disaster! The holly blue was highly mobile, and typically appeared on the soggy mud churned ground  -  under the small squirrel smitten oak entering the clearing from the arched blackthorns. where a succession of birds nested in 2011.

Holly Blue 1
Orange Tip m 1
Small White 2+
Comma 3+
Peacock 2+

Holly Blue

3 May 2013

The warmest day so far this year finally brought the awaited speckled wood on the wing, where it was reported from a garden location in Bromley North. The interesting feature of higher temperatures 17c is that the male orange tip is highly active in covering a range of adjacent habitats in search of a female butterfly, none of which seem apparent.  

Speckled Wood 2 BN
Holly Blue 1 BN
Orange Tip m 1 +BN BC
Small White 2 + BN BC
Comma 4+ BC
Peacock 4 + BC

speckled wood - typical outspread wing posture (late brood)

4 May 2013

A welcome visitor to my abstract canvas background in the woods...

The Herald

My previous experience of the herald dates back to 1988, when I found a group hibernating in my bungalow garage at the top of the downs in Otford. It also put in an appearance in Orpington during an earlier period of the 1970's when it was found in another domestic garden setting.

comma uw

comma os

10 May 2013

Emperors flying in Bromley!

In fact it is emperor moths that are flying hereabouts. About two weeks ago, the intrepid Howard found a female emperor sheltering on his Waldo Road allotment and shortly after a very distinct collection of eggs laid around a dead stem of elder that was being used as a support cane. These are now being hand reared sleeved to willow, a favourite foodplant of the emperor larvae. The moth is the only member of a genus (saturnia) that is more usually associated with the far east. These eggs hatched in early June and are sleeved in muslin to a willow tree.

31 May 2013



May Butterfly Summary 

May weather continues the pattern set by last year's cold and damp spring, but without so much rain, which seems to have migrated to central Europe, where conditions resemble our own of 2012 - with massive flooding over thousands of square miles. Overall the month for us was characterised by modest extremes, with occasional highs, but plunging wet and cold lows.

 May - During the short warm spells things got going, with birds nesting and the occasional appearance of spring butterflies. By the end of the month there were these species on the wing:

Brimstone
Small white
Green veined white
Large White
Orange Tip

Common Blue
Holly Blue

Small Tortoiseshell
Peacock
Comma

Speckled Wood
Small Heath

June 2013

 June started with raised temperatures and lots of sunshine, but the possibility of really high temperatures was being kept in check by a brisk breeze.

Visits to the local woods and fields continued the developing pattern of late May. There was an exceptional show of Small Heath butterflies on the earthen paths that descend to Shire Lane across the fields between Farnborough and High Elms - about forty in the space of a hundred metres in a sheltered corner. This pattern was repeated at Shoreham on Fackenden Bank. The uniting factor being the tendency for the butterflies to congregate away from the breeze in the dell at the base of the down. In High Elms itself, up on the chalk of Cuckoo Wood there was a fine show of orchids and the twayblade, but few skippers. By contrast, on the rich grassy slopes of Fackenden Down, the dingy skipper preponderated, with a very few grizzled to make up the numbers.

orange tip male

small heath

speckled wood underside

June 5th

Another visit to White Hill in 20 degree temperatures and in particular to the Donaldson's field, left an abiding impression that the Small Blue would be scarce this year. In contrast, the Common Blue and the Dingy Skipper are doing well, and as in the last few days, the odd Grizzled Skipper was on show.

Grizzled Skipper

  

June drew to a close with a marked increase in daily temperatures and prolonged sunshine. The low to average temperatures were caused mainly by windy and cloudy conditions as the westerly airflow did not allow the eastern side of the country much respite from the north easterly weather systems that had been predominant.  The slight rise in temperature was not always accompanied by sunshine, with several days on end being overcast and grey, giving little chance of butterfly activity. July was broached, not only with hot conditions, but also with high levels of air humidity that proved perfect conditions for the newly fledged birds that filled the trees looking for insects. During this period there were several stag beetle finds locally including a find of the lesser stag beetle. 

Comparison between lesser stag beetle and common stag beetle: above.

July 5th-7th

New arrivals on the wing in the continued heat wave, 30c on the 7th

 

Ringlet 20+ (in new cleared area)

Meadow Brown 5+

Large Skipper 5

White admiral 1 m (usual place in coppice)

There is little doubt that many butterfly species have suffered under last summer's almost continual wet conditions.

 

For The Lovely Blythe

A very special young lady came walking across a fragrant meadow of wild flowers. It was mid summer  and the suns heat had subsided just enough to make walking pleasant, rather than a hot and sweaty chore. With the young lady was her mother. They stopped, as from the woods emerged a man bearing a large pack upon his back. 'How are you and where have you been this fine summer day', said the man.

Erin explained that she and her charming daughter Blythe, walked across the meadow every day - rain or shine, on their way to and from school. 'How wonderful', said the man, 'You must get deer and foxes in the morning and butterflies in the afternoon'.  The two females were now curious about the man and his great pack and asked what was he doing in the woods. 'I am photographing birds from my hide', he said, which was rather remarkable. But, the man found the daily walk of these two engaging females just as remarkable, since in the country of his birth, mothers picked up and dropped of their children to school by car. So it was that Rodney met Erin and Blythe - a case for mutual admiration.

The next summer was notable for rain. It was as if the sun had given up and retired into a fit of sadness. So it was that Rodney did not see much of his two charming ladies for a long time - well into the autumn in fact. This time it was on the street, and like the summer, the moment was filled with dark clouds for him. He tried to make light of the meeting in a clumsy sort of way, despite his shock, but he was deeply troubled to find that the charming Blythe had become quite ill and the equally charming Erin was being wonderfully brave in coping with her daughter's illness. The strange thing was, that in contrast to his sadness, the two lovely ladies were as wonderful as ever and completely uncomplaining in the face of adversity.

The man could not understand how fate could have allowed such a thing to happen to such lovely people, until he realised, that despite all the changes in the daily routine the family would undertake,  that it made no difference, because this family had enough faith and love between them to overcome all the tests that life would present. The strongest in love and faith are given the greatest cross to bear. 

Nature Diary April 2012

April 1- 7th

April has taken the heat out of things in a very concerted way, but coinciding with the children's holidays, the cold weather is something of a godsend for my work, since it is almost certain that the kids who twice set fire and disrupted the hide would do it again.

In among the cold and rainy conditions, notably on Good Friday, a range of true spring emergent butterflies took to the wing in and around the clearing.

Speckled Wood
Orange Tip
Small White
Comma

Among the nesting birds, the long tailed tits that built in February had a rude shock when the council set about decimating the bramble growth, but they still managed a brood. Not so the nearby chaffinche's nest, that like so many other birds this disastrous spring, was a washout - with all hands foundering in the deluge.