Pump up the Wings

A warm afternoon with plenty of butterflies on the wing. Overhead the sky seemed to be full of Swallows and a few Willow Warblers were calling from the hedges and in Farm Wood. A Little Owl stared at me from the pine tree behind the barn, almost as if it was confident that it was well enough hidden to make it useless to photograph.

While I was watching the Gatekeepers I noticed that some were crinkly like the one above,

and some were smooth like this one. I can only think that the wrinklies, far from being OAP's have only recently emerged and haven't finished pumping up their wings and drying them out.

There were several second brood Wall Butterflies. These often perch on the ground. As a youngster I remember them as a common garden butterfly in the road I lived in Bexleyheath, and we would often find resting on the pavement in the sunshine.

Of course like all the other butterflies they were also visitng the thistle flowers.

Large Skippers seem to be numerous at the moment.

While they are around it is difficult to resist yet another picture of this years star performer, Painted Lady. I did see one Small Tortoiseshell in the garden today, and one at St Margaret's Farm, Whitfield yesterday, so they may yet make a revival.

Mothing A few moths last night.the best being a beautiful Lunar Thorn, which can be seen here on my Mothing Blog.