Butterfly

I suppose that all of the flying, biting, stinging things that inhabit this island have a beauty all of their own, but personally i'd sooner look at a butterfly rather than a wasp.
Talking about wasps, Bev got stung earlier this morning by an irrate wasp that was looking to take a drink from her arm.......i'll explain..........
The current day time temperatures here are between high eighties and mid ninties.
During the day, we aren't the only ones who are using the pool. Swallows and House Martins swoop in to take a drink while on the wing, the same birds will actually plop themselves into the water to take a bath of sorts, once clear of the water they ruffle their feathers while gaining height only to repeat the whole cycle two or three times until they feel sufficiently clean or perhaps cool.
The Hooded crows come to drink from the pool, the lumps of bread we leave out for the crows goes stale very quickly in the heat of the day, the crow bring his lump of bread to the pool and drops it into the water letting it soften and soak up some water before picking it back out and eating it by the side of the pool......very smart fella............
Not quite as smart as the wasps, the wasps actually land on the surface of the water, i'd never seen this before. If they land squarely on their feet they can actually take a drink and fly away again. How ever if wing touches the water then they're pretty much as good as dead, the surface tension of the water draws the expanse of the wasp's wing onto the surface, drowning follows after a few minutes.
They do cleverly have another way to get a drink, they seem to be able to sense the water on a persons body when they get out of the swiming pool, a couple of wasps were partoling the pool this morning when Bev got out of the pool, they were straight on her, of course she tried to waft them away swinging her arms violently to shoo the wasps away, Bang........stung.

Another holiday another sting...........

Sorry i didn't mention the bats that drink from the pool during the night..........

Larger image........

j.