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!

New York Day 6

Day 5 is missing because I didn't take any photos (shock horror!). We went to Brooklyn to see Miles's other cousin, Emma, and in the evening we met up with Rita. It was good to see Rita after all those years of knowing her only via the internet. We had a great time with her, and to top it all, Rita dropped us off in Little Korea and we had a delicious dinner in a restaurant that was full of Korean people (which is always a good sign).

Monday started - after another fine brunch in a diner near by - with a trek on foot...



...and subway...



...only slightly warping the dimensions on the way...



...to The American Museum of Natural History.



First we went to see a special butterfly exhibition.















This is the actual size of the above butterfly:



The Atlas moth.



...up close.



Then we are back in the lobby.









...enter the main museum itself and face a fantastic display of elephants...



...and other beautiful African animals in the displays around the room.



Upstairs to see the dinosaurs!















Finally we ventured into the Rose Center, just to see the fantastic building.









I'd read in the guidebook about the biggest cathedral in the world (or was it in the US), so I had to go and check it out. I have to say I was a little disappointed when we got there. Yes, it was big, but... I suppose I was expecting it to be more impressive somehow. Not that it wasn't impressive! It's just that the huge, football field size middle bit was a bit too much like a football field: empty.



Plenty of detail in the periphery of the building, though.












We went to see the Chrimbo lights in the Rockerfeller Centre.





















...and ended the day by spending a fine evening at the fantastic Bourgeois Pig.



Many a wine bottle and a cheese fondue was gorged with panache, as would be expected in a place named thus.

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.