The troops are gathering

I'm finding little clusters of 7-spot ladybirds apparently surviving the recent very cold nights perfectly well, despite being out in the open - in this case, in a rather sparse clump of rosemary. It looks like good news for keeping on top of the early emerging aphids, but it's also good that I'm seeing few of the recent immigrant Harlequin ladybirds that we thought were going to be such a threat to our 7-spots.