Missing the 3R's, but Butterflies & Hares to the rescue

Missing the 3 R's, not Reading 'riting & 'rithmetic but a very, very poor weekend for birds personally having missed another local Raven this time at Ashby, a Red Kite and dipped a Ring Ouzel at Easton Bavents sheep paddocks. Overflying Cranes were also dipped and it was particularly galling to think they may have flown over the garden!

3 Buzzards near Herringfleet flying in a spiral at one point and an elusive (so elusive I didn't see it!) male Blackcap singing at Somerleyton were the only avian titbits on offer this Sunday.

Much better were the posey Butterflies in the garden, first a Comma, then a Small Tortoiseshell and then 2 Peacocks fed from the Aubretia flowers which are nicely in bloom at present.

Compensation for missing the Ring Ouzel came in the form of 4 splendid Brown Hares sitting in 2 adjacent fields near the turn off to Sotterley from the A12.

A quintessentially English mammal, the English Brown Hare was even described long ago by the Roman historian Cassius Dio.  In his Roman Histories in describing Boudicca, the Iceni Queen who led the Boudiccan revolts, he states she "employed a species of divination, letting a Hare escape from the fold of her dress; and since it ran on what they (the Iceni- the Celtic tribe that occupied Norfolk & North Suffolk) considered the auspicious side" this was seen as a sign by Andraste (an Iceni Celtic God) for the Iceni tribe and other local tribes to rebel against the tyranny of Roman occupation and head south to overthrow Roman occupied Camulodinum (Colchester in Essex)!

Spring has Sprung!

There was a lot of activity in the garden today with regular visits by a pair of Long-tailed Tits which must be nesting nearby. Great Tits, Blue Tits, a Magpie, Wood Pigeon, 2 Jackdaws, a Robin and an overflying "rattling" Mistle Thrush all put in visits too. A Willow Warbler sang briefly from the grounds of the Parkhill hotel, my first record of this species for the year. However, prize for the best songster heard from the garden must be go to the fine Skylark singing from high up in the sky, no wonder it was inspiration for the "Lark Ascending" music by Vaughan Williams.

Around the ponds, a female Common Frog appeared almost to "sunbathing" in the warm spring sun half in and half out of the goldfish pond, whilst a drab Peacock butterfly newly emerged from it's winter slumbers settled sleepily on the garage wall.

Several Honey Bees and a White- tailed Bumble Bee pollinated some early flowers out in bloom and the first of my wild Primroses were flowering too.