a dog's life in the Tamar valley, Cornwall, PL17

This cold damp bumblebee was found this morning hanging by one foot from a scabious seed head, about to fall stuporose into the meadow ...

Hard though it is to remember, these meadows were full of butterflies only a few months ago (see link ). Below is an example of witches...

Hard though it is to believe it has been hot and sunny for almost two weeks now. This is the first spell of decent summer weather we have...

for the first time this year the butterflies are stirring in the meadows. There were dozens of meadow browns (top) and skippers (middle) a...

the meadows are so impoverished around here we have had to plant our own.

There are several species of skipper butterflies but only two, the small and the large, are found locally. This is the small skipper, and ...

at long last, a photo of a butterfly (a very tattered heath fritillary) on a butterfly orchid, it is a meadow icon. I am not sure why bu...

it continues to rain, and the Inny meadows are wet and dreary although there was some bedraggled ragged robin.

The sun brought out the butterflies today, they must be getting desperate! The range and balance of wild flowers in Greenscombe (I am ne...

marsh orchid, lesser butterfly orchid and heath spotted orchid, all out in Greenscombe meadows today.

Spot taking a close look at some red bartsia, a semi parasite of grass. Maybe he has toothache ( qv ).The last flowers of the summer are co...

wrens flourish because there are so many insects in the meadows at this time of year. The knapweed is now the dominant flowering species lo...

a crab spider has caught a meadow brown and is hauling it up to the flower head. Not all is beauty and light in the meadows.

although it is common, as this photograph shows, knapweed brings a blaze of brilliant purple colour to the meadows in late summer (a prize t...

There were a lot of silver washed fritillaries out today in the sun. They seem to prefer meadows and grassland that lie next to woods. They...