My local birdwatching patch is Stanwick Lakes in Northamptonshire. This series of old gravel pits with small areas of woodland and pasture is set in the Nene Valley. No weekend is complete without a two-hour walk around with binoculars. But the two things that struck me today were not the birds.
The May blossom is fading and falling now and the deep creams and pinks are passing away. I remember that around this time last year the bushes showed the impact of several weeks of easterly winds - the eastern sides of the hawthorns were bare whilst the sheltered western sides were still bright with blossoms. It's funny how you can read the history of the recent weather in the look of the countryside.
After my day out on Monday with Martin Warren I was more alert to the butterflies on my walk - large white, green-veined white, orange tip, peacock and my first common blues of the year. There were still a few flowers of Lady's Smock (aka Cuckoo Flower, Milkmaids, Cardamine, Meadowcress, Lucy Locket and Pigeon's Eye) and, because Martin had showed me how, I found a few single, orange eggs of the orange tip butterfly under the flowers. These will hatch into caterpillars soon and then spend the period from July until next April as pupae. As I walk around Stanwick Lakes with frost on the ground next February, those pupated caterpillars will be stuck to twigs waiting for spring - amazing!