Sprung is spring!

The last week or two has seen the temperature rise from heaters-always-on, wear-at-least-3-layers to toasty t-shirt weather.  Well, it would be if such garments were appropriate...

The colourful flowers are coming back out...

...the trees are covered in pretty blossom...

...more interesting birds are starting to make appearances...
(doesn't appear in my bird book, but similar in size and shape to a Tree Pie;
it has fantastic stripes on its tail which become visible in flight.)

...the little grassland butterflies return with a vengeance...
(a Dark Clouded Yellow)

...while the big fancy swallowtails have reappeared
(albeit near the tops of the trees to take advantage of
all that blossom nectar).  This is a Common Peacock.

The Roseringed Parakeets didn't go anywhere,
but I finally got close enough with the camera!

Lepidoptery 6

Another brilliant batch of beautiful butterflies (previous episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5):

A Blue Pansy - a different variant from the last one, I think - most of these pics are from a few weeks ago before it got cold, but there are still quite a few of these guys left hanging on even after most of the other species have died off or migrated somewhere warmer:



















A Dark Clouded Yellow:

























A Common Wall:



















A Lime Butterfly - these ones get up to a fairly impressive 10cm wingspan - there were dozens of them enjoying some big red-flowered bushes at a motorway service station on the way to Lahore:



















And another one dreaming wistfully of freedom. Or something. It could be an elegant poetic portrayal of the tragedy of locking up something so beautiful or somesuch, were it not for the fact that the other three sides of the room were open to the fresh air. Stoopid insect:



















A Plain Tiger at our conference in Lahore last month (well, not at the conference, but you know what I mean):



















And from just the other day, apparently still braving the coldness, the grandly titled Queen of Spain Fritillary: