Eyes

It was a good job I had my eyes open. My path was converging with the toad's paths but the movement in the grass alerted me. Note the horizontal pupil, the simpliest id feature of the toad.

I waited until late afternoon before going out for my walk, as that was when it was supposed to be warmest, but the full sun of the morning was by then heavily filtered through clouds. It was enough to lure out some butterflies: peacock, comma and small tortoiseshell were all about, but no sign yet of the next wave of emergences: orange-tip, speckled wood, holly blue and large and small white should all be out before long.

The butterbur down by the beck is looking good. I had a couple of good red kite sightings too, it seemed to be circling up and down the valley.

Otherwise I read a bit, and spent another few hours sorting out my postcard collection, with the various boxes starting to have a bit more coherence in terms of their contents. 6 Music provides me with company as always.

Take care everyone.