With the unseasonal weather over the last week or so some surprises have been on the wing on the reserves. I saw a butterfly flit past me as I was at Cliffe last Wednesday as we removed the skip full of 1.56 tons of plastic from the River Thames foreshore. Even on a brief glimpse, I reckon it was a Wall Brown, which of course is a fairly regular sighting along the sea wall, but a little later in the year. The first one we saw last year was in May on our second plastic clean-up, also seen this week were two Painted Lady and I saw today a beautiful Peacock. Over the past few weeks, several Red Admiral are around, these generally are the almost all year round butterfly.
Ruby told me this morning last Thursday she heard a Chiff-Chaff calling out its' name near the Bromhey Farm Office, I saw a Marmalade Fly this morning, a common species of Hoverfly, so is Spring just around the corner?
In contrast to the butterflies, there are still winter thrushes, Redwing and Fieldfare flocking around the reserves.