March

Today, we are having a spring day. With a clean sky and 16ºC in the shadow, under the sunlight the temperature is very comfortable. But March is a impredictible month. Three years ago, after a spring like week, the weather changed suddenly and it started snowing.

But as I said, today things are different. The almond tree, reckless, is already in full bloom. Sometimes it starts in early February.  Birds, insects...and specially the light make you feel the spring is here.
The sun  moves higher in the sky and we have more light. In days like this, one of most relaxing things you can do  is just sit under the sunlight in a quiet place and observe around.  And I was just doing that when I saw the first wall lizards, up and down.
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And a butterfly  Vanessa atalanta.




The camera had problems with the light in the wall and the dark colors of the butterfly. Light was much more intense than it seems in the picture

This species migrates. We have populations that stay here all the year round, increased by nothern populations in the winter. This one has the wings in poor condition, but manages to fly normally. It was just hibernating a few days ago.
It is a very confident butterfly, that allows you to take pictures  easily. But today I could take  pictures of her with my telephone, less than 20 cm from her. I don't recall them being so confident in the summer. I used to see them when I was a child in the summer afternoons, with the last direct sunlight of the day, that sunlight with a special color.  They sunbathed with the wings completely extended on a wall or on the ground. In my land some people call them "papallona de tarda d'estiu", wich means summer afternoon butterfly. 

 

And I could also take pictures of a  Macroglossum stellatarum. When I see them I always think of hummingbirds, as they move they wings very fast and stay still in the air while they feed from the flowers, just like these birds do.  They are butterflies.

I took the Clemmys hatchlings out of the shed were they have been for the last months and I put them in a tank outdoors. Althouth it will probably freeze some nights, they are not in danger because it won't be cold enough to frezze all the water.  From sunrise to noon temperatures can vary 20ºC in early spring. At noon, unless it is cloudy, turtles will be very active.
 

Regarding the adults, today I saw the male. This winter has been very mild, the pond surface has not frozen even a single day.
 

The turtles that I had in the other pond have been hibernated in the shed like the hatchlings. I could not check them properly in the other pond during the winter . I have put them also in a tank outdoors until the winter is completely over. They inmediatly started sunbathing and later they ate an earthworm.

Since last month I am trying to breed the earthworm  Eisenia foetida as food for the turtles. I put coconut fiber as a substrate and decaying leaves and recently cut grass as food. All kept humid. I bought the earthworms in a sports shop (fishing department).

 

 

 

This egg (there is plenty of them)  is probably from slugs (I put some in the upper self)