tortoiseshells

the common but very pretty tortoiseshell butterfly, distinguished from the rarer large tortoiseshell by the heavy black scaling around the body. There have been an amazing number of butterflies around in the last few days. Something must be going right.

eyes in the back of your head

another close up of the hover fly. What interested me was the little shield between the two compound eyes with three little raised spots. These are called ocelli (from the latin ocelus or eye). Their function is a bit of a mystery, but they may be associated with the fly's ability to orientate itself in 3 dimensions when flying (see link). Isn't life interesting.

How long will it last ...

up on Bodmin moor, looking towards Kit Hill (just visible in the background), surrounded by the ruins, puts me in mind of Ozymandias and all his works.

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level moors stretch far away.

I am sure I have had this thought before up on this ancient and much abused landscape. Apologies for the liberties, "sands" in the original is much better because of the connotation with remorseless time.

white tailed bee

what would we do without knapweed. This handsome chap-ess is the white tailed bumblebee, bombus lucorum. It is common, but we have never noticed white tailed bumblebees before.

8 August:- now that we have had a closer look, most of the bees around here have white tails, which shows how unobservant we are. The bee above is particularly striking.

blue butterflies at last

these are the first blue butterflies we have seen this year. Both are common blues, the top is the female. The sun has brought them out, but the heavy constant rain of the last 6 weeks seems to have had a very bad effect on numbers locally.

Greenscombe meadows

at the top is a local rarity, Cornish bladderseed, an umbellifer so named for the shape of the seeds as seen at the top left, and beneath is a photo of the brilliant red berries of Guelder rose before the birds take all the berries.