When the Sun Shines

Wednesday, April 20th 2016

Another lovely warm and almost windless day.  The sun and warmth stretched butterfly wings.  Brimstones were seen and it is back to chasing them if a photo is required.  A single Orange Tip butterfly flew in front of the drystone wall.  Yesterday it was the volunteers sunbathing around the wall, today a Peacock butterfly was doing the same.  Peacocks have hibernated over winter and are now on the wing.  Unfortunately the temperature is dropping by several degrees from the weekend so those on the wing now may struggle to survive.

There is a small steep bank at the edge of the far moor and it is covered in violets.  We think that they are all Common Dog Violets, even this very light coloured one.

The first Wood Sorrel flowers were seen growing on an old tree stump.  A tiny green mark turned out to be a greenfly.

There are plenty of flowers, including willow for the hive bees to feed upon.  Whilst watching them in the hive I wondered how heavy their pollen sacs were in relation to their body weight.  Pollen grains are light, but even so the large size of some of the sacs must be heavy.  Then another question raised its head - how many pollen grains are contained in one sac?  Perseverance with the camera has resulted in a sort of reasonable photo of a bee with large pollen sacs.

There has been a photograph of a Roe Deer buck in velvet.  This is the skin that feeds the growing antlers.  When they are fully grown this skin starts to peel off and is very itchy.  Young saplings are ideal as scratching posts as this tree shows.

Plovers Pool was beautiful in the afternoon sunshine.  We are taking regular photographs as the area changes with the seasons and would hope to have a display towards the end of the year to show its development.

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