I was sitting in a train carriage heading home, paused just outside of Cardiff Queen Street Station because of a points failure, gazing idly out of the window when, to my utter amazement, there came a fluttering of black and red on the other side of the glass – a Red admiral! It was a cold day but, in sheltered spots, the sun was quite warm – warm enough, obviously, to have roused this brave creature from its winter slumbers. The Red admiral was the last butterfly I saw in 2023, on 20 November, and is now the first seen in 2024, on 18 January. I was too slow, and the train began to move forward, so I didn’t get a photo of this first sighting – the image below is from one my last sightings last year.