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, fro...

  Once upon a time, there was a woman who was rather scared of 'Creepy Crawlies' and buzzing whizzing things.  She was even more scared of spiders...   Then one day she decided to learn how to use her camera, she started off on larger creatures, but during the summer months, when the birds were all busy with young or out of sight behind the leaves, she began to look more closely at the little creatures.  After a while, with the help of a long lens, she began to 'see', get curious as to what she was seeing and began to marvel at the world of Minibeasts.   Every year, I love watching everything emerge and follow a cycle, from the plants reappearing in the spring, followed by the first Bees, then watching the birds getting busy, then in the summer, the gradual emergence of fairly common insects.  I almost tell the time of year, by what I'm observing out on my walks.     I'm not scared of the Creepy Crawlies and buzzy whizzy things anymore ...