Photobomber

 I was ambling round the Trap Grounds nature reserve in central Oxford yesterday morning, a little oasis reclaimed from a dump next to the canal and looked after by enthusiastic volunteers. I like to enter their annual photo competition for their calendar and I was pleased to find an amenable Meadow Brown butterfly.

I was even more pleased to see that my snap had been photobombed without my realising it by a Common Blue Damselfly. It too was unusually willing to be stalked and I got this clearer photo of it shortly afterwards. 

I wasn't alone in the Trap Grounds; for company I had the cat who walks by him (or her) self. He or she was extremely suspicious of me and the ducklings on one of the reserve's ponds were noisily suspicious of him or her.

I also snapped a Common Green Bottle Fly before heading home from the Trap Grounds to the moth trap which has been keeping busy.  Attractive arrivals include - in order below - a Scorched Wing with its remarkable eye-baffling pattern, a well-named Blood-vein, a Marbled White-spot (which needs careful checking to distinguish it from the various much commoner Marbled Minors

Finally, a firm favourite: the Beautiful Hook-tip whose caterpillar perhaps contributes to the adult insect's beauty by enjoying a diet of lichen. As it happens, my photo chosen for this year's Trap Grounds calendar was of lichen and moss, though sadly bereft of caterpillars.