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Saturday, April 15, 2017

AFTERNOONS WALK ALONG RIVACRE VALLEY

The weather was beautiful today on the Wirral, so I spent the afternoon walking around my local nature reserve in Rivacre. It wasn't long before I saw my first Comma butterfly of the year as I was walking along the stream.

Comma

Spring is truly upon us now, and the valley floor was covered in Bluebells.

Bluebells

There were good numbers of Orange-tip butterflies around the reserve, and I managed to get a distant photo of a Brimstone butterfly as it landed on the other side of the stream.



Orange tip

Brimstone

Walking further along the valley, I heard a Green Woodpecker calling, and it didn't take long to locate the bird sitting right out at the top of a tree.

Green Woodpecker

The stream held a single Grey wagtail and two Kingfishers. Due to the constant disturbance of dog walkers and children playing in the stream, I was surprised that the Kingfishers were still around, as I hadn't seen them at all this year after numerous visits.

Grey Wagtail

Walking back to the car, a Peacock butterfly appeared right in front of me near the path, and a Speckled Wood was seen around the ranger's cabin.


 Peacock



Speckled Wood

A lovely afternoon's walk, and so nice to see a good selection of butterflies, which are now seriously in decline in Great Britain.
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