Comma on a dusty footpath

Comma on a dusty footpath

Comma butterfly resting on a dusty canalside footpath, spreading its wings in the morning sun to get warm enough to fly.

Dogs mercury flowering under hedge

Dogs mercury flowering under hedge

Dogs mercury flowering, and beginning to turn to seed. Usually found in shady woodland, but this was under the hedge by the canalside footpath.

Dogs mercury flowering under hedge

Mining bee gathering celandine pollen

Mining bee gathering celandine pollen

Mining bee, possibly a tawny mining bee (Andrena fulva), going for flower to flower in a patch of lesser celandine, adding a little to its already bulging pollen baskets at each one.

Tortoiseshell butterfly after pussy willow pollen

Tortoiseshell butterfly after pussy willow pollen

Catkins aren’t there to attract insects, but to have the pollen get to the female flowers by being carried on the breeze. But this tortoiseshell butterfly was gorging itself on the pollen of a pussy willow by the canal at Compton.