something from the dark side

 It was butterfly heaven in the meadows today. Above is a peacock feeding on knapweed, showing the stark contrast between its colorful upper wings and dark under wings. Below is a silver washed fritillary.

fearsum beastie

The awesome water boatman heading for a hapless fruitfly. This variety is safe (see link). They seem to be in every puddle just now. They must be able to fly.

juvenile goldfinch showing the almost complete absence of adult colouring in its feathers

cool as a rabbit

a fox trying to look innocent stalking rabbits, and a young blackbird unflustered by the camera

nursery news

Behind the Martinot line, George Martin is getting a mouthful. Note the rather dainty white feathers on the adult bird's leg, something you don't see when they are flitting about but it is a characteristic feature of martins.

Wainscots and waves

Out doing big butterfly count today (link) for third or fourth year in a row. The meadows were bursting with meadow browns, whites, skippers and ringlets, a few silver washed fritillaries and the occasional red admiral, tortoiseshell and small copper. In amongst all these butterflies it is easy to miss the moths. Most moths (of which there are thousands of species) are extraordinarily difficult to identify, mainly because no one appears to have come up with a colour coded identification chart or web page for simple minded people. The top photo is a common Wainscot (I don't know how they get their names), and the bottom photo is probably a smoky wave (both on the balance of probability rather than certainty!).

And above is a close up of a small skipper. No blue butterflies at all again for the second year in a row.