I spent the morning torturing myself with stress, upgrading the firmware of the R5. I’ve now come to the conclusion that I either need to do this every single time they release an update, so I can remember the procedure without having to do an hour’s research each time, or stop doing it at all and simply risk the consequences. The former is obviously the more sensible option, but – you know – I’m a wild and crazy guy…
Anyway, after much waiting around and breath-holding (not good for the health at my age), the camera stopped saying DON’T TOUCH ANY BUTTONS and announced that the update was successfully installed. At this point I thought I’d better go out and test it, rather than following my inclination to take half a pound of chocolate and a bottle of red wine to a quiet corner and go with them to make sure no-one disturbed them, so I reapplied the big lens and went into the garden.
Even though it was quite warm there wasn’t much about, but this Speckled Wood sat nicely for me on the aucuba, displaying its rather attractive fur coat. It’s very fresh, which has to make it a third-brood specimen, so it will be needing to get on and breed before the autumn sets in properly. According to UK Butterflies, the Speckled Wood “is unique among the butterflies of the British Isles in that it can overwinter in 2 stages, as both a larva and pupa. As a result, there is a mixed emergence with adult butterflies on the wing from April through to September, with a few adults being seen as early as March or as late as October, especially at southern sites. There are 2 or 3 generations, depending on location and weather conditions and adults of later generations are generally darker than those emerging earlier in the year.”
Later in the day I walked around the village in the hope of turning up a dragon or two. This didn’t happen, but I discovered that while I’d been otherwise occupied the ivy has started to come into flower, and the Ivy Bees have emerged. My second photo shows a rather pretty male.
