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

We were driving around South Downs today and came across this magnificent peacock.






Apart from being very loud, he looked extremely stern and pissed off. And it's not that I was too close to it or anything; I took these shots with my 100-400mm lens.






I guess I would be pissed off if I had to drag a ridiculously long tail behind me all the time.



And turning around, we saw Thomas The Tank Engine! (This photo is especially for my sister's kids ;-) Click on the photo to see a bigger version of it.



Then drove to Ditchling Beacon to see the sunset.



...but instead of a beautiful sunset, we saw this gorgeous little thing!



Juvenile kestrel, I believe.






The moon looked more impressive than the sun, really, but even though it wasn't a spectacular sunset, it was a lovely one nevertheless.