Flyladyphotography By Wendy Cooper

  There is something very peaceful about watching Butterflies which brings a wonderment and sereneness.   I often stand entranced, watching as they flutter and float past me like bejewelled sunbeams or passing musical notes, determined on their course to find a partner, defend a territory, chase off a rival or find a prized source of nectar. When watching, I have to be still and disciplined, a lurch or fast movement from me will distract them from their mission or disturb them from feeding – such fragility is to be respected, I am after all a mere onlooker.   At the beginning of the month I had noticed signs that the Butterflies were beginning to re-appear, having watched Speckled Wood, Brimstone, Orange Tips and Brown Argus. The other morning, realising that the summer Solstice had suddenly arrived and Midsummer was almost upon us, I decided to have a little stroll on my Local Patch and concentrate solely on Butterflies – the birds after all have had a fair amount of attention

  I was only away from my Local patch for a month, but what a change!!  The first weekend in May I went a-wandering; where the birds had previously been in courting mode, now they were out foraging for little hungry mouths. My first encounter was with a Great Tit who had a beakfull of bugs He was waiting to go back to the nest - as he flew off, a nearby movement caught my eye, shimmying up a nearby tree trunk was a Treecreeper, also with a beak-full. He (or she) continued to forage for a moment before flitting off and I spotted a second Treecreeper in forage mode as well. I watched from a respectful distance as the pair of them went to and fro for a while, although they were quite fast when heading back to wherever the nest was – I didn’t investigate closely for fear of disturbance. The woodland floor has now turned green with wild garlic mustard shoots, stinging nettles and splashes of colour from Red Campion. The Elderflower bushes are full of sweet smelling blossom and eve