The foam of “cuckoo spit” is the protective cover for the nymphs of froghoppers – the name describes the habit of the adult insects in jumping from plant to plant. Overnight rain had left a drop of water hanging from the foam, forming a minute lens.
The male and female flowers grow on different plants. I don’t know which these are.
A common butterfly on hot days in spring, but normally hard to photograph. Usually very flighy, heading off at even a distant human approach.
This one settled to feed where I was already standing looking for other subjects, and then spend some minutes feeding, giving me views of it from various angles.
Wings from above and edge-on; its incredibly furry-looking body, long antennae and, in some pictures, seemingly even longer tongue probing flowers.
This is a male – the females lack the orange mark on each wing.
This robust thistle was growing as a weed in someone’s front garden.
Once opened, the wild flowers look like dandelions on a taller, thinner but tougher-seeming stem. IIRC, they are indeed related.
Previously unposted images from one of the series posted earlier. Unlike the earlier sets, these have been cropped.
