Wolstonbury Hill yesterday

Looking north with Danny House in the foreground.

Looking west to Chanctonbury hill.  How many thousands of ant hills are there on Wolstonbury hill?

There are fairies here... fairy shrimps that is, in this pond.  This is the view east to Jack and Jill windmills.

Only a few hundred yards away, on the northern slopes of the hill, wild garlic is emerging -- soon to produce a profusion of white flowers, a few florets of which are great to add zing and decoration to bowls of soup.

Red Admiral in Cuckfield today.

Starting each spring and continuing through the summer there are northward migrations, which are variable in extent and timing, from North Africa and continental Europe. The immigrant females lay eggs and consequently there is an emergence of fresh butterflies, from about July onwards. They continue flying into October or November and are typically seen nectaring on garden buddleias or flowering Ivy and on rotting fruit.
There is an indication that numbers have increased in recent years and that overwintering has occurred in the far south of England.  Source: Butterfly Conservation

This one is quite battered.  I suspect that is had over-wintered here and was lured out by the sudden warm weather and scent of Daphne bholua upon which it was feeding before I got these pictures on a Choisya sp.  The orange bands were not at all red, superficially ressembling a Painted Lady, which I don't think it is.  Too bad.  That would have been nice.

Some birds in the Loder valley today

This Song thrush was by the fence of Wakehurst Place, singing away, as we walked down to the Loder valley.

A Cormorant and a Great crested grebe in this shot.

Grey Heron.

Spot the Nuthatch.  It was hammering away and it took a while to spot it.

Great tits were piping a lot, establishing territories and blue tits were everywhere too.

These Coots were in Ardingly reservoir, as was the Grebe below.

This is a great time of year for bird watching, before the leaves open on the trees.