Bit of a Butterfly Fest!
Well Hello there! You may recall that in a previous blog I mentioned that summer seemed to be off to a late start, well on my local patch, during July and August, things finally caught up. Whilst all the birds are busy raising young and also, in most cases, going through a moult, during the summer months I tend to focus on the smaller creatures which appear. Our non-feathered companions, such as spiders and beetles can give some folks ( including me) the heeby-jeebies, however since I have been taking a close up view, (ok, from about two metres away, with a big lens!) not only have I become less fearful, but I have also seen how beautiful our minibeasts are. There are no spiders here though! Instead I had a browse through my diary and was surprised at the number of different types of butterfly I have seen this year, which, whilst all are familiar (and common) species also included a couple of new ones for me as well! The 'local patch' habitat consists