Morning mist

Yesterday's rain was heavy and persistent, and this morning at 5.30 am Thorpe Wood was both saturated and scintillating. As the sun rose, a fine mist formed , giving the wood an almost unearthly feel. 

The tree canopy is now in full leaf, which made parts of the wood very dark and chilly, and also made seeing the birds more difficult. But I was delighted to locate the nest hole of a pair of nuthatches in an ash (the same hole was used by a pair of great spotted-woodpeckers last year), as well as three nest-boxes in active use by blue tits. The first fledglings have appeared - a single robin and a large family party of long-tailed tits.

After driving Ben to Stamford and making a quick visit to Sainsbury's, Chris, Pete and I headed off to complete the work we should have done on Saturday. We started in sunshine and finished  just before the next band of rain came in. I was very excited to find a whole set of emperor moth caterpillars eating a bramble, and also found time to photograph a relatively co-operative small heath and an early bumblebee (see extras).

I'm now feeling completely exhausted!