Season's end

Camera Critters

I keep hearing a certain word. An innocent sounding word. A quiet little adjective that trips off the tongue too easily. That word is autumnal. I don't have anything against autumn, it's a splendid time of the year, but with every spectacular autumn you have to know that winter is just around the corner and unlike the other three seasons just seems to last forever. I like spring and summer too much and this year's offering of new life and sunshine has skipped past in the blink of an eye. The familiar sights of summer are fading away again. The gatekeepers are gone and the last of the small whites are drinking their last sips. The day feels autumnal.

Orange-tip & Candytuft

Camera Critters & Face of the Week

Here are some more pictures of yet another harbinger of spring, the Orange-tip butterfly (Anthocharis cardamines). The undersides of his wings are marked with a mottled camouflage pattern that helps him blend in and go unnoticed among the leaves. The top side of his wings are more striking and are a direct warning telling anybody who fancies a butterfly sized snack that he doesn't taste very nice at all.

He's filling up on the sweetest nectar from Debbie's Candytuft (Iberis Sempervirens). He's a common butterfly in the British Isles but still a very handsome sight.

On the trail of summer

Autumn has snuck up on us again. Hope everybody enjoyed their summer. There was a summer there wasn't there? Glimpses. If summer could be compared to a movie, I would say we only got to see the trailer before the projector broke. Did the butterflies enjoy it? Debbie seems to think so. She enjoyed capturing some images of the little flutterers on her flowers. The garden did a fair job this year of attracting both insects and birds.
October also means the start of the dreaded Badminton season. Much rushing about and bolting of meals will occur and Harry will lie in wait for big hugs twice a day, instead of just the one big teatime collision of clumsy legs and whirring tail. Debbie will have to catch up on her Gardener's World on iplayer. At least it keeps her fit.
Autumnwatch is back again. Surely Springwatch was only on last week. New format. Weekly episodes. Hmmm. I'm not a big fan of Chris Packham. He's ok in small doses and he knows his stuff but he tends to set me slightly on edge and I can feel my irritation levels creeping up inexorably every moment he is on screen. Not too relaxing a chap. The sad thing is he seems to know he is irritating and plays up to it. And where have the nature reserves gone? I know it is pitch black at 9:00pm but surely they could have done better than a Bristol office car park, lunchbreak bench and the little broom cupboard studio for the dynamic duo to do their blurbs from. On the positive side the films were improved on recent years and we had no repeats of last year's Simon King filming sea-weed sessions. Highlights for me were the red deer on Rum with Percy, the shrew and the brilliant Knapdale beavers.