Beautiful
Spring sunshine again today. I decided to wait in the garden in the hope of seeing my first Orange Tip and Holly Blue of the year. The first butterfly to catch my eye was a
Speckled Wood which seemed to be admiring its own reflection on a dead laurel leaf. A couple of Large Whites flew through and a Comma stayed for a couple of minutes. No Orange Tips yet but a
Holly Blue showed interest in one of my topiaried trees. I'm not good at Ladybird identification so if anyone can recognise these three............
I am thinking they could be
Harlequin (
Harmonia axyridis),
Pine Ladybird (
Exochomus 4-pustulatus) and
Orange Ladybird (
Halyzia 16-guttata).
near Grassington in North Yorkshire is an area of ash woodland with an under-storey of hazel and bird-cherry. Yesterday morning I had chance for a brief foray into the wood and on the south-east facing part of a sycamore trunk I noticed a patch of lichens. Closer examination of the lichen revealed a couple of resting micro-moths that I recognised as belonging to the Phyllonorycter genus. These could well be examples of "Nut Leaf Blister Moth" (Phyllonorycter coryli). There are actually two of them on the lower photograph here, demonstrating their camouflage! 
Spring sunshine again today. I decided to wait in the garden in the hope of seeing my first Orange Tip and Holly Blue of the year. The first butterfly to catch my eye was a Speckled Wood which seemed to be admiring its own reflection on a dead laurel leaf. A couple of Large Whites flew through and a Comma stayed for a couple of minutes. No Orange Tips yet but a Holly Blue showed interest in one of my topiaried trees. I'm not good at Ladybird identification so if anyone can recognise these three............ 
