Brush Hill, moths, a trip to the stream and some new arrivals

We've had a really busy few days, so there's lots of lovely stuff to include in this post that I haven't had time to blog about. It means this post is a bit of a mixture, but is hopefully still all interesting ...

Brush Hill
I had a quick walk around Brush Hill and couldn't believe how much it's changed in the last couple of weeks and how much everything has grown. It was looking lovely in the sunshine.

The pale blue flowers of wood speedwell had appeared under the shade of the beech trees. They're much more subtle than the bluebells or even the bright blue germander speedwell.

Wood speedwell

Out on the chalk grassland, the buttercups and germander speedwell covered the slope. That was a real surprise as there was nothing flowering when I was last there

 

I could see Pyrtle Spring nestled in the Rape seed fields below me.

Pyrtle Spring is the clump of trees in the fields below Brush Hill

I found a pretty little orange ladybird and saw several brimstone butterflies enjoying the sunshine.

 

Brimstone butterfly

Orange Ladybird

 

Moth trap

We put the moth trap out last night and caught a few very pretty moths, including 1 brimstone moth, 3 hebrew characters, 1 brindled beauty, 1 hazel scallop, 1 heart and dart, 3 flame shoulders, 1 swallow prominent and 1 clouded drab.

 

Brindled beauty

Heart and dart

Clouded drab

Scalloped hazel

Swallow prominent

Swallow prominent

We also caught 3 cockchafers, 2 of which decided to mate in the moth trap! He soon dumped her and flew off as soon as they were out of the trap though. They're such crazy looking beetles, but you have to love them.

 

Stuck in a moth trap all night ... may as well!

 

The traps open, so it's time to go

The Stream

 

We took Rosie, our puppy, to the stream today. She's only just started going for walks, so it was quite an outing for her and we were interested to see what she would make of the water.

 

The walk there was lovely, through a field full of buttercups and clover. Everywhere is suddenly so green and alive. It's such a beautiful time of the year.

Looking back towards Whiteleaf Cross

Lots of lovely buttercups

 

The stream with a bridge over it

The first of the Yellow Irises had started to flower. They're so pretty and will look stunning in a few weeks when they're all in bloom.

There were tiny metallic green mint leaf beetles all over the plants around the stream.

 As for Rosie, it would be fair to say she liked the water and wore herself out jumping in the mud and in, out and over the stream.

Who's going to push who in first?

Hatchlings
Back home we found a load of baby spiders had hatched out in the greenhouse. They're such tiny little things and will soon all spread out and disappear into the depths of the greenhouse.

Also, the Emperor moth eggs that Uncle Butterfly gave to Bug Mad Girl had started to hatch. There are 2 so far - hopefully more will hatch tonight. More on them in later posts I suspect!