An hour in the sun

 

In between the tennis (Hooray!) and the football (Oh well, next  time), I had an hour's gentle wander in the evening sun yesterday round the big field and neighbouring plantation just a short walk from our house. There were lots of butterflies astir and even more when I swished through the long grass of the generous unfarmed margins round the crop of oats.

I still find Marbled Whites a wonderful feature of life down here, after many years in Yorkshire where I came across them in large numbers only once, flying beside Chalkhill Blues amid the ghostly hummocks of Wharram Percy, perhaps the most thoroughly-studied, abandoned mediaeval village in the world. Their chessboard pattern is exquisite and they are usually generous in settling down long enough for me to take their photographs in focus. 

Here's another one with five neighbours also on the wing: a fresh Red Admiral, a Common Emerald hiding in the bushes, and a Crambus pelella micro doing the same, a Small Skipper of which there were myriads and a Meadow Brown, likewise. Meadow Browns are famously devoted to small territories and so when they scoot off at my approach, I am happy to wait for their inevitable return.

Back at home, I forgot to include an aptly-named seasonal moth which made its debut on Saturday night, Behold the July Highflyer. And here below, startled from some garden shrubs, is another Crambus/veneer micro whose ID I will try to sort out when I find time.