First Butterflies of the Year.

Clear skies overnight resulted in a frosty start to the day, but also meant the sun soon warmed things up later, resulting in reports from neighbours of early Brimstone butterflies on the wing. (Last year the first I saw didn't appear until the 11th of March.) None in my garden though, but a stroll down the permissive path to Ashton in the afternoon did yield three Small Tortoishells, all rather tatty having over-wintered by hibernating.

Cuckoos on the move.

BTO have just posted news of their three tagged Cuckoos which have just started to move north from their winter quarters in the rain forests of Central Africa. My Cuckoo, Valentine, is number three in the queue. "A low quality location received from Valentine's tag suggests that he may also be on the move from Angola towards Democratic Republic of Congo. Hopefully he will emerge from the forest canopy soon and his tag will receive enough sunlight to send us a more reliable location." The birds will be feeding and fattening up in preparatiom for their Sahara crossings.

Garden Visitors.

 Welcome visitors in the back garden yesterday were a pair of Bullfinches which arrived after a gap of several years.

Pair of Bullfinches in Elder bush.  Photo. john Elliott

The handsome male is easy to spot, but the not quite so handsome female takes more finding, She is up and well to the left of the male, her black head picking her out. Click to enlarge.

They are still here today, clearly visible as they have an early morning feed.

Pair of Bullfinches.  Photo. John Elliott

Exciting news from Dorset Wildlife Trust, a pair of Beavers have been installed on a West Dorset site. See  www.dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk/BeaverProject for a video of their release.