Sunset at Piddinghoe

I must go for a sunset walk more often.

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!

Just another summer's day

Random snaps from today. First of all - one happy doggie enjoying a little run on the river bank.



I was trying to get a photo of an egret, but it was very shy and flew away before I could get even remotely close (!) to it.



Resident geese in the Piddinghoe fishing / sailing lake. Not very willing to pose, either!



And here are the creatures Zebedee is MOST interested in: bunnies!



BUNNIES? DID YOU SAY "BUNNIES"?! WHERE?



They are everywhere, and they are proving to be a real challenge when training recall... A few pieces of kibble are not going to be able to compete with escaping bunnies, that's for sure. I must take some salami or something with me from now on when we go out for a walk, and try and see whether I can recall Zeb with the help of that when he wants to go and chase rabbits. (Zebedee's recall is almost perfect when there are no rabbits around.)

This is another bunny area... Zebedee does come back to me when I say that he is not allowed to go nearer to the cliff edge (well, kind of - most of the time), but it's not 100%, so I have to be very careful around these areas, and that is why we really need to train the recall to be as near as possible to 100% reliable. The cliff edge is to the left in this picture; the path is not far from it.



I think this is a Meadow Brown. Haven't seen many of these. There have been loads of Gatekeepers on Castle Hill, but only a few Meadow Browns, a few more Common Blues and a few more again Marbled Whites. And the odd Small and Large White.