By midday today it was scorching hot. I had taken our labrador for a riverside walk early morning ( saw my first dragonfly of the year) and then decided to head out somewhere unaccompanied. I love Hugo but he gets a little impatient when I become distracted by butterflies. 🙂
Salthill Quarry Nature Reserve is one of two nature reserves in my home town. A mixture of limestone grassland and shady woodland, the reserve is a haven for wild flowers and birds such as black caps and bullfinches. Which I never see ! Haha. Today my nemesis bird ( a gloriously colourful jay) posed for several photographs, promptly flying off cackling before I could get him into focus.
I enjoyed my walk and intend to post a blog in June, when hopefully the bee orchids will be in flower. For now, enjoy these photos. 😘
I hope I have identified the above correctly, please let me know if I have mixed up my common blues with my holly blues. 😅
sunshine and celandines 
Fantastic photos of the Common Blue. We keep spotting hawk moths resting in broad daylight. X
Oh I am jealous..Are they in your garden? x
One was in the garden and the other was on a walk. X
Fantastic. Only saw my first hawk moths last year. X
I love their furry faces. ☺️
Looks like a lovely spot with plenty to see. I think you can identify blues using the ocelli on the underwings. In theory. Bit beyond me to be honest.
I think they do match up with small white and common blue. 🙂
Lovely photos, I like the crinoid bench and the robin, sorry you didn’t get your jay though – maybe next time 🙂
I thought of you when I saw the jay. I was hoping I could get a good photo like you did, the jay had other ideas. 😅
Lots of lovely sights 🙂 Those pesky birds though…. they always fly off just as you get them in focus!
They do! X
I remember the post last month when Hugo wouldn’t pose on the bench. It will be interesting to see the changes in nature over the months. A lovely place to be on such a glorious day.
The wildflowers should really be something in June and July. It’s very colourful in summer. X
A lovely place for a walk. Your photographs are beautiful. X
Thank you. X
Lovely photos & you are very good at identifying all those butterflies & flowers. For me butterflies are just that & we get very few here & although I know a lot of flowers, you’ve some wild ones there that I certainly wouldn’t be able to identify. Loved this post & thanks for sharing. Take care, stay safe & huggles.
Thanks Susan. X
It was so hot yesterday! Looks like you had lots of nature around you on your walk, lovely photos xx
Thanks Christine, it was very hot. Luckily I retreated into the woodland a few times and took water up with me. I not that keen on very hot weather. X
Some great shots – nice butterflies, there are some good local nature reserves out there.
We are very lucky that we have two….and another one being made as we speak from an old water lodge. X
It’s amazing what’s right under our nose when we pause for a while and look around us. Fab!
Absolutely. X
Such fabulous photos, I can see why Hugo might have got impatient though. They must have taken a while to get!
They did, I was out 3 hours…..but time did fly by. X
Beautiful photos.It looks a lovely nature reserve and I’ll look forward to the bee orchids. Shame about the Jay but Robins are always happy to pose for a photo or two:)
Robins are definitely not camera shy. 🙂
So much to see! What a lovely spot to go for a walk and how wonderful that it is in your home town.
Thank you sharing all your photos, it is such a wonderful time for wild flowers isn’t it. I am really enjoying walking round my village and looking at the wild flowers in the verges of the lanes.
I love country lanes. Loving all the cow parsley that is flowering here at the moment. Bet your part of the world looking so lovely right now. 🙂
Love the photos. We have a couple of robins who like to visit our garden at the minute.
Robins are such sweet birds, always up for a photo. 🙂