Butterflies

We've seen a surprising number of early butterflies - well, perhaps not so surprising, given the lovely weather we've got with us for a few days. Today I was delighted to see a brimstone wafting through the garden and on into the wood. Almost immediately afterwards, our first speckled wood of the year appeared, and patrolled the woodland edge in typical fashion. I noticed two whites today; they over winter as pupae, I think. I've seen small tortoiseshells here and there today, and tonight a peacock spent probably twenty minutes quartering our garden, and basking for a while in sunny spots. We saw our first comma of the year a couple of weeks back, but I haven't seen another yet. Along with the speckled woods, this is usually the butterfly I most expect to see in our garden.