more simple pleasures ... goose herding

today we went to the Cornwall and Devon Countryman's fair at Werrington Hall. Although it was a cloudy day we enjoyed some unusual spectacles, including goose herding



duck and children training (supervised by collies)



and finally a goose and children race

l

,

Small copper butterfly from the side (above) and a crowd of different folk (including a small copper as more usually seen) enjoying some yarrow. Are we in danger of becoming a bug blog? Cassie (Spot's dam) has suffered a major injury to one of her hind legs and her leg has swollen up like a barrel (apparently, so our vet David Ellis says, this is something that happens to greyhound lurcher people) but she has been grounded for a few days and thus we are not going for long walks. It brings to mind that she is 11 years old now and showing some signs of age. What will we do without her?

in the teeth of a dragonfly

it is usually very difficult to get up this close to a resting dragonfly, but this golden ringed dragonfly seemed happy to pose for posterity.

gamete exchange ?

does anyone know what these slugs are up to? (They are not eating, unless they eat paving stones)

more from the meadows

throughout the meadows were these webs which look like little strips of polythene wrapped around the heads of knapweed. I think they contain the young of the spider in the bottom photo, but I cannot identify the species from this photo (and trawling through the field guide to spiders is not for the faint hearted)

butterfly counting

It was British butterfly counting day today, so we went to our favourite meadow and walked through it for 15 minutes. The brambles have almost finished flowering, but the meadow is full of knapweed and in a few days will be a blaze of purple. Like last Sunday we saw many species, including three that were absent last week, the common blue, the peacock (top photo, very resplendent indeed), and the holly blue (bottom photo).This is only the second time in 5 years that we have seen and photographed a holly blue. There were ringlets, various whites and meadow browns beyond count, and a dozen large silver washed fritillaries.