David

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.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/davea2007/7301902200

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.