Flyladyphotography By Wendy Cooper

  When I was preparing a list for my Darting, Buzzing and Jumping blog,   I'd intended to include my butterfly sightings as well, thinking that I'd not seen that many this year, well I was wrong!  Whilst I have definitely seen lower numbers of the usual visitors to my local patch compared to previous years, there has certainly been no lack of variety in butterflies and moths.   In the early part of the year, there were cold and mild spells of weather which continued well into June, some of the time it was exceedingly wet as well as being unseasonably cool.  Many of the usual plants and trees were in blossom out of season and in some cases, like brambles or thistles, bloomed late and in some cases 'finished' a lot faster than I recall for previous years. The fallow field that I frequent is bordered by banks of brambles and woodland, there are patches of nettles and stands of Common Hogweed.  In the main part of the field, as well as the Hogweed, from May and June onw