The new brood...

After I'd processed yesterday's images, Pete and I took the dogs over to Holme Fen for a walk. We were hoping for some early fungi, but they were very few and far between, thanks to the recent dry weather. The sky was mostly overcast, with occasionally sunny spells, but when the sun shone the warmth brought out plenty of late summer insects.

We visited one corner of the fen which has the remnants of a garde - snowdrops in spring and wild plums in the autumn. Ther weren't many fruit to gather, and quite a few seem to have rotted on the trees. However, these were providing a feast for clouds of butterflies, including red admirals, speckled woods and a batch of newly emerged commas. In one warm and sheltered corner near the fruit trees we saw seven pristine examples, sunning themselves inbetween bouts of fruit gorging.

This particular individual had ventured farther afield and found a sun-soaked birch trunk to bask on. I particularly like the similarity between the ragged shape of the wings and the fissures in the bark, as well as the sharp shadow below.

For anyone who's been following the Chatsworth saga, I back-blipped our final day here.