Linacre 1st May 2011 - sunshine, wind, butterflies and a year tick.

Every year it's the same and it never fails to amaze me just how quickly the trees come into leaf and everything turns green! So it was this afternoon when Jayne and I popped down to Linacre for a few hours in the sunshine. I've only been away for a week, but in that short space of time everything has changed. Most noticeable today were the "May blossom" or Hawthorn trees around the site, which were all out  in full flower and looking beautiful.

Hawthorn flowers

As well as this, the Wild Garlic flowers had also opened up and had peppered the green carpets with dozens of lovely white flowers.

Wild Garlic in flower

As well as the flowers this afternoon's visit, despite the very strong winds, was very good for butterfly sightings with 6 species being seen, namely Speckled Wood (1), Large White (7), Peacock (2), Orange Tip (2 males), Comma (1) and a beautifully coloured Small Copper (1).

Small Copper

Birdwise, the reservoirs were pretty quiet, although 2 singing Garden Warblers were a good year tick. A Common Sandpiper was present on the middle reservoirs, dodging all the dogs and people playing on the lovely mud (!) and 2 broods of Mallard, 7 and 8, were swimming around as well. The hybrid goose (see here) was still present on the top reservoir and 4 Great-crested Grebes (2 pairs) were still looking forlornly for somewhere to build a nest!