This beauty — I have given up trying to identify specific species, I always get it wrong (I thought it was a Red Admiral, but apparently not) — was perched not two feet from the traffic on the Keighley Road this morning. Obviously it wanted its close-ups doing.
Also, a curiosity — this is, almost certainly, the first picture of all the thousands on this blog that I have rotated through 180º. Technically you are looking at this upside down.
A couple of thousand feet up a Scottish mountain (Mount Battock), populated almost entirely by grouse. There were no other people, which meant that the grouse were somewhat surprised to see me. And this beetle was crossing my path regardless of my own intentions, with this determined look on its little insect face. “You’re in my way — move, now.”
Emboldened by the appearance of its fellow moth five weeks ago, this one flew over and demanded I did its close-ups. The plums in the background prove that the tree has eventually borne fruit, despite half of it giving up the ghost.
Unless I’ve miscounted — but you can’t prove this, so might as well take my word for it — this is the 1,499th picture on this blog to be taken in Hebden Bridge. Number 1,500 will be along before the week is out.
You wait ages for a small insect and then two turn up in consecutive days. This fly hung around for a while; clearly it has an interest in Ted Nelson’s Literary Machines this afternoon. As did I.
This moth was tiny, barely the size of my thumbnail. Do you know the basic difference between butterflies and moths? I didn’t, until looking it up today — but apparently, all butterflies have little balls at the end of their antennae. As this creature doesn’t have those, it’s a moth. Now you know.
The bee is the symbol of the city of Manchester (something to do with ‘industry’), so it seems appropriate that this guy and his colleagues were busying themselves on campus this afternoon — certainly they are showing more industry than the human inhabitants are at the moment.
Lately most of the ‘likes’ on this blog have come from bots — can I just say hello to the five or six different accounts, all with the same profile picture, who have supported my efforts lately? Clearly I need to spice up this photo-feed a little, so here’s two beetles getting it on in the springtime. So attached (in both senses) were they that they remained entwined even after I manouevred them up onto my finger, in order to avoid squashing them when sitting down on the bench (at university) on which their amorous activities were occurring. I hope they and their babies are now grateful for this consideration.
I didn’t leave the house all day today. There didn’t really seem a great deal of point. This tortoiseshell butterfly has also moved in, it seems. I guess a domestic house is like an old people’s home for butterflies; the winter isn’t biting yet but I doubt these will last long outside, regardless. It’s welcome to inhabit our living room. It gave me something to photograph today, at least.
Clare tells me there are both good and evil ladybirds — the latter being invasive species, of which this specimen may be an example. Whatever, it seemed to develop an attachment to me: after I took this photo of it at the railway station it then hitched a ride on my mug of tea and by now will be living it up in Manchester — or whatever the ladybird equivalent is.
And no, I do not know what the problem is with removing the label. Perhaps I should find out one day.
When the sun shines, we all deserve to perch on a fern somewhere and stretch out at 5.25pm on a Friday evening. Lockdown or no, it’s been a busy week. And butterflies have a lot still to do.
Being 42 