Peacock (Inachis io)

I was very surprised to see a peacock butterfly a few days ago. I didn't think butterflies would be flying about yet! I was excited. So excited that I didn't manage to take a photo of it - it kept flying off every time I tried to attack it with my humongous lense.

Well, today I was more careful. Look!



I was as excited, but in a bit more controlled, stealthy manner.

I saw another butterfly, too! A female Large white. Identified by the two spots and a streak on its upperside forewing.



I've had trouble identifying the Large white from the Small white, but today I found a good, simple identification rule:

(Looking at the forewing upperside patterns)
no spot = small white male
one spot = large white male
two spots = small white female
two spots and streak = large white female

Anyway - not only the butterflies, but the butterCUPS are out, too.



And geese flying left and right.






Blimey, it'll be summer soon!

Birds and butterflies

We walked along the river to Piddinghoe this morning and I was hoping to see the grey heron that has been teasing me a few times in the past (when I haven't had my long lens with me!). But there was no sign of the heron, so I took some photos of butterflies along the river bank.



My first ever shot of a small tortoiseshell. You don't see them very often around here.



Swans with cygnets... (is that the second batch of the summer? or third?)



Anyway, as we got nearer to the Piddinghoe sailing lake and I saw that there were loads of geese swimming on it, I admit to some shocking behaviour: I thought I'd run towards the lake and make all the geese set off in a frightened flight and I'll get a brilliant picture of dozens of geese taking off from the lake surface. I know - not very nice to disturb the geese's peaceful morning like that. But Zebedee was playing with me and he headed for the lake, too. As I got very close to the edge of the lake, Zebedee was already there by the reeds and long grasses and had just scared some other bird away. Some really big bird. About the size of a grey heron, in fact.



Damn! I missed it! How clever of me to try and scare away the geese and ending up scaring away the one bird that I didn't want to scare, if it happened to be anyway nearby. And the geese were still exactly where they were before - didn't bat an eyelid at our incredibly scary dash towards the lake. (They probably don't even have eyelids, mind you.)



Not even when a swan flew over them.






In the meantime, the grey heron was on the other side of the lake, not in a very photogenic environment.





One of these days I'm going to get a proper photo of it.

Pheasant at Castle Hill

Weird! Never expected to see a pheasant couple on top of coastal cliffs. First I saw the male...



... and when I walked on, suddenly a female pheasant rushed off from the long grasses, making it look like she ran away from her nest. Which made me walk away quickly and let her get back to the spot (where her nest may be). Anyway, very odd place for a pheasant to nest, I think!

The walk was lovely as usual... I'm surrounded by beauty.



The obligatory puppy photo from the walk:



...and a couple of butterflies - a Small White, or a Large White (not sure which).



...and a Gatekeeper, a ubiquitous butterfly, at least in these areas.