The butterfly garden is looking absolutely fantastic right now – a riot of colour and variety, smothered in bees and butterflies – exactly how it should be.
A close up of a Green-veined White butterfly feeding. You can see a lot of detail in there (click the photo for a bigger close up), including the mottled grey pattern of the eye. Apparently this is a very common butterfly, but looking particularly interesting here on the underside of its wings.
This is a Small Magpie moth resting on the underside of a nettle leaf in the orchard. It’s only small, but very pretty, and seems to prefer landing upside down – at least for all the while that I was chasing it.
Finally an unusual visitor in the new pond – a leech, happily nosing around in the shallows. Quite a big one too – a few inches long. Credit to Penny for spotting it!