Male speckled wood butterflies try to control a woodland glade as territory, and fight off other males as they approach. If there are no other speckled woods around, they prefer to rest in the sun. A small garden with lots of trees and bushes makes a good substitute for a woodland glade.
David
Ragwort flowering
Even in the city centre there is rough ground where weeds can grow – here by the canal towpath.
Copper beech in flower
These pictures show the catkins, and also the complexity in the colouration of the leaves.
Many-spotted ladybird
This may be the 14-spot ladybird, Calvia quattuordecimguttata.
Whatever its species, it is not one I remember ever noticing before.
Web with hawthorn pollen
This spider’s web was catching pollen from the hawthorns as well as other detritus.
Buttercup with a tiny insect
This tiny fly was resting on the edge of a buttercup flower.
Hazel leaf with galls
The raised areas on this leaf are galls, caused by the depredations of some tiny insect.
Small copper butterfly
A butterfly which, like many species, likes basking on the ground to catch the sun. Small coppers are usually flighty, but this one let me get close enough for a portrait.
This one may be a male: males defend small territories. Notice the chunk missing from the right wing.
Yellow-cress flowers
Probably the marsh yellow-cress.
Conifer flowers
Flowers of different conifers.
