Big Butterfly Count

The Big Butterfly Count is on from 16th to 31st July in the UK. I think it's particularly important this year because the warm spring seems to have done something strange to our butterfly populations. During June I hardly saw any, even on warm sunny days.

So I was quite pleased today to count 8 butterflies of five different species in the 15 minutes this lunchtime.

This speckled wood was hard to photograph, hiding amongst the thistle down, but the result looks OK - or is just a mess?