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This morning I had an appointment to see the rheumatologist, and R very sweetly offered to drive me to town and buy me cake as a reward afterwards. My relationship with Dr M hasn’t always been either easy or cooperative … Continued

R and I went to Cardiff today, to take L and G out for lunch and, as a bonus, to see Women in Focus, Part One at the National Museum of Wales. This is a really nice photographic exhibition, should … Continued

My bug haul for the day…. Butterfly field: 4 Common Blue (three males and an extremely battered female) – moderately skittish, though photographable; 1 Brown Argus – from the position and behaviour, probably the same male I blipped here, but … Continued

From one fearsome predator to another – though on a rather reduced scale. I had an interesting bug walk around the parish this afternoon, bagging shots of some nice bee-mimicking hoverflies, and what looks like a wasp-mimicking bee, though I’m … Continued

If you’re likely to be thrown out of the trout farm at any minute by another male who has declared this site to be his territory, I suppose it makes sense to grab a fish in each foot while you … Continued

On Sunday I mentioned that I’d been told by Mike Williams of Butterfly Conservation that an influx of migrant Silver Y moths often coincides with mass migration into the UK of Painted Lady butterflies. Yesterday evening I went for a … Continued

Yes, I know it’s a grey squirrel, and they’re non-native, and a pest because they’ve crowded out our native red squirrel in most parts of the UK, and given the red a disease with which it can’t cope. And I … Continued

I love almost everything about this moth, from its gorgeous spotty wings, through its extravagant antennae, to its insouciantly curled proboscis. I love the way it’s posing on this orchid, and the fact that it looks as though it’s dressed … Continued

You sometimes read that Odonata copulation is non-consensual – and it’s true that it begins with the male grabbing hold of the scruff of the female’s neck (or in dragonflies, the back of her head) by his claspers – an … Continued

R and I went on a dragonfly hunt this afternoon, along the River Avon at Eckington, near Pershore. There were dozens of Banded Demoiselles dancing about, and a good number of Red-eyed Damselflies, but we’d walked a fair way – … Continued