The latest #DailyExercise Walks

Crafty Green Boyfriend and I continue our #DailyExercise through a small local park and two nearby cemeteries. Yesterday it was beautifully sunny and several small tortoiseshell butterflies were flying around. Crafty Green Boyfriend managed to capture some of them on camera, here's one of the photos - if you look carefully to the right of the butterfly, you may see a small hoverfly that we didn't even notice until we looked at the photos! (The Hoverfly UK Facebook group identified this as a Platycheirus sp.)

More unexpectedly, we found this bee fly! (Click on the image to enlarge it).

Bee flies resemble bees, and have long proboscises (feeding organs) that are used to feed on nectar. This individual is Bombylius major, whose larvae parasitise solitary bees. You can find out more about bee flies in this article on the Discover Wildlife site).

We also saw some solitary bees, including this one in the park

And we've continued to observe the horse chestnut leaves unfold

Lovely to see the daisies in bloom, a very common flower, but always so cheerful

and many more of them to come into bloom I think

We have started putting out some sunflower seeds to attract birds and already the blue tits are coming down to take advantage of this

and the blackcaps have arrived, I heard the first one of the season singing today, alongside the robins, chiffchaffs and wrens.

We did the same walk today, it was sunny again and we saw lots of butterflies in one of the cemeteries, including this beautiful peacock

In the same cemetery we saw this beautiful great spotted woodpecker, which we had previously only heard drumming (click on the photo to enlarge it)

and we were surprised to see this pheasant, looking beautiful in the bright sunshine

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The UK Government is, at the moment, allowing us out for one form of #DailyExercise once a day in addition to visiting the shops (as infrequently as possible), travelling to work (for those with essential jobs that can't be done from home) and medical emergencies including helping those who are self isolating. Though there are suggestions that the privilege of outdoor exercise may be removed because of the actions of some people who have been gathering in greenspaces without paying any attention to the need for proper social distancing. (You may be interested in this interesting article about the new politics emerging over the management of public spaces.)