Energy Drink

She/he is looking a little faded and bedraggled. It's not surprising - this individual may have flown from Africa this year. Or it may be a child of a migrant, hatched and grown here this year, feeding as a larva on its favourite meal: the nettles just over the garden wall. Its dishevelled state may be down to our erratic summer

As climate breakdown makes our winters warmer (for the moment, anyway - if the gulf stream fails it will get very cold indeed), more red admirals are over-wintering here. This one was attacking this aster with gusto, probing with its proboscis like a suspicious dentist checking a dodgy tooth, trying to get every last drop of nectar. So it may be trying to feed itself up to survive the winter cold