ID help please! Myopa sp., my garden, today. Steven Falk (the walking stick's of interest too...)

Huge hatches of Speckled Wood these last few days, possibly the best I've seen of it in mid-April - in Cotswolds this weekend & in Exmoor valleys Thurs & Fri. Same elsewhere? Have lots of busses arrived at once??? (mating pair on right)

Doing Phase 1 surveys for High Brown Fritillary recovery project in E Lyn Valley, Exmoor. Day 1's findings: The butterfly may not be extinct in the valley, or if it is then the habitat is eminently recoverable. Possible larval feeding on Rt. More tomorrow...

'Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam
Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.

Forlorn! the very word is like a bell
To toll me back from thee to my sole self!' (Keats)

Above Watersmeet, Lynmouth, today...

Matthew Oates will be talking about ‘The Meaning of Butterflies: science, aesthetics, spirituality, poetics, relationship with place’ on Sat. 27 April 2024, 2pm at the Richard Jefferies Museum. Zoom link. richardjefferiessociety.org/2024/04/the-me…

Breaking! A posse of 5 House Martins back here. We had 18 nests last year. Target for this year: 180... House Martin Conservation UK & Ireland

Pearl-bordered Fritillary larvae are now in their final instar, with impressive canary-coloured spines (mini pylon lines...) tipped in black ink. Flying in a month's time. Cotswolds.

It rained and it rained and it rained. Piglet told himself that never in all his life, and he was goodness knows HOW old - three, was it, or four? - never had he seen so much rain. Days and days and days. Every day the water got a little higher. ~A.A.Milne #rain #flooding

Just when you thought the weather couldn't get any worse... the cricket season starts tomorrow...

First Swallow in our village this evening, once the low pressure wind had died down, but I WANT MY HOUSE MARTINS BACK...

Yay! Bee-mimic hoverfly Criorhina ranunculi on male sallow in the bottom of our garden, a local dead wood species - not bad for a landscape dominated by arable + pheasants! And a Willow Warbler singing over the old pond... April's coming home!

Purple Emperor caterpillar 'Jadis Queen of Charn', who I've been following for months. Today. She's been feeding, by bud tip biting; has grown and is colouring up again, to full Lincoln green. She has serious Ambition...

Welcome Home, British Summer Time! And for the record, my clocks never went back - forever BST. Here's a celebratory Brimstone

My first Dotted Beefly of the year, today, late, feeding on Primrose. Dark-edged has been out here for 2 weeks.

Hummingbird Hawkmoth on Honesty flowers in our garden just now! Very early in the year, and remarkable for Glos. There's been a scatter of sightings in the far south. Apols for poor photo, it was frenetic and claimed a pressing engagement elsewhere...

In Nature Notebook in tomorrow's The Times, by me: State of Spring '24, living with Little Owls, Wildlife of the M5. Enjoy...