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This year, due to the spring-like temperatures we have, we are experiencing another winter, far from the postcards of snow and coats, which has been like a call for the bees and butterflies to be more active than ever around this time of year.
The pleasant temperatures of January and February in Catalonia have disrupted the life cycle in forests and gardens. Examples of these are the hairy-legged bees and the white butterfly, which have moved forward to their peak activity period, which is from March to June.
For this photographic report in La Vanguardia Readers' Photos, we can see them present in the medieval garden of the Pedralbes monastery in Barcelona, fluttering in the lavender and broad bean flowers.
The hummingbird sphinx has also been seen for days in the orchard of the Pedralbes monastery. It is very restless, it goes up and down, it stops and flies again, it goes from one flower to another. It has not been difficult to photograph it, but it has been worth it. This is what this spring winter full of life and color looks like.
To give us an idea, January was described by Meteocat as a "warm month throughout Catalonia, even very warm in the high mountains, with anomalies above 3 °C." It was, furthermore, dry or very dry in most of the country, with the persistent drought only broken by the occasional day of rain, also, in February.
This winter of pleasant temperatures has, therefore, been an early call for spring. It is a spectacle to be able to see the hummingbird sphinx in action. This moth never lands on flowers, it always flies. And it is a true prodigy of aeronautical engineering of nature. These butterflies can fly backwards, remain suspended in the same place and move at a speed that can exceed 70 kilometers per hour.
Hairy-legged bees also offer us a spring spectacle in the middle of winter. They commonly live in gardens, open forests and coastal places. They collect pollen and nectar from early flowering plants.
These solitary bees do not build colonies. Females usually make nests in the ground by excavating cells, which they fill with pollen and nectar (as food for the larvae). And they lay a single egg on each mass of pollen.
They are insects, they are very alive, but they are not the only ones. Plants also bloom earlier and vividly. And pollinating butterflies are already taking advantage of this in this atypical winter. The white one also brightens our eyes this month of February, more alive than ever in the gardens.
