butterfly count

It is the start of butterfly count month (see link). The meadows were teeming with the usual mid July suspects, including dozens of small skippers (as above) meadow browns, ringlets and silver washed fritillaries. Very few red admirals and no tortoiseshells or peacocks. Five common blues which is definitely up on the last two years.

morning cocktails

The amazing scorpion fly. I am not quite sure what it is doing, or what it has got its head in, but they have a reputation for drinking fermented fruit juices and getting drunk.

mother and children

one careful spider mother (probably pisaura mirabilis, the nursery spider) and dozens of babies

gathering 2

A wave of meadow brown butterflies is sweeping through the lanes, maybe it is going to be a very good month for butterflies.

the gathering

the rooks have heard that some people are complaining about the noise they make early in the morning .... they are planning their next move. Hitchcock eat your heart out.

on the mend

Our hedgehog is definitely on the mend, eating and drinking and doing a bit of stomping about (and increasingly ignoring us). Still not quite sure it is 100%, but we will release it late tonight if all seems OK.
But sadly not on the mend enough. He gradually became more withdrawn and listless. He was taken to our nearest vet this morning where he was found to be very anaemic and emaciated. The state of his teeth suggested he was an elderly hedgehog. He died under an anaesthetic  while being examined with a view to treatment with antibiotics and steroids.