Garden today

There's been an explosion of Ringlet. Today there must have been 25 in the garden, they're hard to count so I expect there were more. Other butterflies today were Meadow Brown, Small Tortoiseshell and Small Heath. Yesterday the garden was full of Large Yellow Underwing (I think, I'm not good at moths). Also today Chimney Sweeper, one of my favourite day flying moths.


The hoverfly Volucella bombylans var plumata was another nice find, unfortunately the photos of it with its wings spread were not sharp.

On the bird front 5 Crossbills flew over and landed in the Larches as I was fixing Mol's bike. Sparrowhawk, Kestrel, Siskin were all in evidence. No sign of Walter or his family, however, I wonder if the heavy rain has done for them. I did hear a snatch of song on Thursday but no evidence since. The Garden Warbler and the Chiffchaff down in the dale bottom seem to have stopped singing and Willow Warblers are "hewiting" not singing.