Spring just stepped up a gear

A gorgeous warm spring day at Swaddywell Pit - pear, plum and sloe blossom and sallow catkins providing nectar and pollen for many solitary bees, who were also busy round their nest sites in the cliffs. One south-facing slope was particularly popular with green tiger-beetles.
Plenty of butterflies were on the wing including orange tips (one of which appeared injured and was being attacked by ants), brimstones, small tortoiseshells, peacocks and commas. On a shaded part of the western cliff I spotted two freshly emerged Streamer moths - this species feeds on wild roses and is not uncommon in scrubby places.
A large cranefly with beautifully patterned wings was egg-laying in the damp soil near the birch glade, and one of the large sallows had large numbers of the metallic longhorn moth Adela cuprella fluttering around it. The females lay their eggs on the catkins. On hatching, the larvae drop to the ground and feed on dead leaf litter from a flat, portable case built from leaf fragments.
And at the western end of the quarry we spotted three lizards, one of which was remarkably unperturbed by our attention (see extra)!