Jay in May

The Jay (Garrulus glandarius)

 

The Jay is common in coniferous and mixed woodlands. usually seen on feeding excursions moving from wood to wood, and is then recognised by the broad rounded wings and the laboured flight with rather irregular wingbeats. The white on rump and wings is conspicuous at closer range, and the blue wing panel will not be noticed then. The Jays call is a sudden hoarse shout, but also clucking, mewing and intense bubbling sounds can be heard.

Mosaic Magic

The Marsh Fritillary
Euphydryas cynthia ( Nymphalide )

 

The Marsh Fritillary is such a colourful butterfly, with markings just as attractive on it's underwings but in subdued colours.It's wings are narrow by fritillary standards, and often open when sun basking.Wingspan is 4,5-5,2cm. It favours marchy ground, but also moorland up to 2,000m. As you can see, this one is basking on the arm of a garden chair.

Chocolate Vine

The Akebia quinata

 

The weather has changed again, and the forecast is rain for the next few days:( This Akebia quinata or Chocolate vine, half covers our pátio, and in between showers I took these photos yesterday to show you. It's a semi-evergreen climber with chocolate scented flowers which hang in clusters. The female flowers are the large ones, and they stand out against the bright green three lobed leaves which have a purple tinge in winter.

Putting you in the Picture

Dear fellow bloggers Over the weekend my computer refused to give me an image. The screen went completely blank and I feared the worst. This was'nt new to me as it had been happening on and off for weeks, and I had been considering buying a new one, but even so I sent it to be repaired, hoping for the best. It came back a couple of days ago, and I was pleased that it seemed to be working OK, only now, I can't see any of your posts. Your titles come up, with a blank square underneath where your photos should be, and when I click on your titles nothing happens! Also where the photos of my followers should be, it's an empty space. I don't know what's going on, but I thought I would put you all in the picture, and hope I'll be able to post this. See you as soon as I can:)

My Garden and a White Butterfly

This is a small corner of my woodland garden, and I thought it would be nice to show you because the azalias are in bloom now, and it's looking quite colourful at the moment. The azalias attract any number of insects and butterflies.The butterfly in the next image is a Green.veined White. It measures 25mm, and can be found in flowery meadows, gardens and hedgerows and is common in all of Europe.



The Green-veined White. ( Pieris napi )

Many thanks to Nick and Jan for helping me identify this butterfly correctly as A Green-veined-White. Originally I had posted it as being a Small White, but on closer inspection, and after looking at many pictures I do believe they are right.