Cheers Neil - that shot still cheers me up now
Cheers David but not really that much to tell from November and with this posting I've now caught up
![Sad :(](./images/smilies/icon_sad.gif)
But then there is the retrospectives, the lost posts,Bob, some Moths and Exotics
Quick stop in old garden 30-10-2013
The day before Halloween all the other Sisters In-laws had headed home leaving just my wife’s twin and my new niece so we headed round for a visit as my girls wanted to see her now that she was out of hospital and well on the mend. After a catch-up chat and a quick coffee I made my way out to the garden to check the damage wrecked from the storm. Once at the top there was surprisingly little with just the odd twig and what was even more surprising was how many of the apples were still on the tree I’d expected the gales to have stripped it bare. While I was looking over my handiwork from a few weeks previously I saw a Red Admiral basking on the topsoil. It let me approach it and after a few shots it angled itself to catch the sun just right, turning the black wing margins a stunning electric blue.
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As I left this individual to bask in peace I watched another Red Admiral fly by and land promptly where it started feeding on the windfall apples. This was something I was aware of but I’d not seen for myself before so instead of trying to get closer for some shots I knelt down and watched. It would flutter around about 30 cm high until it caught sight of or smelt a likely apple. Then it would land and with wings open it would tip toe over the top the apple occasionally uncoiling its proboscis and lowering it to the skin of the apple. Eventually it would reach one that had a bruise or a tear and it would settle and start feeding. I took a few shots just as a reminder of the behaviour.
While I was enthralled by this a Brimstone fluttered by, circled and landed in the tree at head height. I couldn’t believe my luck. It did seem tired with slightly torn wings but a late October Brimstone isn’t to be sneezed at.
While I left yet another butterfly in peace I was visited by another, the third Red Admiral. This one had obviously noted the basking behaviour on the ground of the first, the taking of rotting apples by the second so had decided to do something different. It invited me to a game of hide and seek, never moving from within the branches of the Apple tree, hiding behind leaves and peering out at me every now and again, flying from one branch to another.
Finally as I made my way back down the garden and inside for a coffee the original was still there, basking where I’d left it so I thought I better take a few more shots as this could be my last butterfly of the year.
Despite this nice collection of butterflies it wasn’t as good as last year when I recorded a maximum of seven Red Admirals in the garden compared to the three this year. And as it turned out this was the penultimate butterfly of the year (to date) so that final photograph was justified. What to do now for the next four months? I’ll have to have a look back over the year I guess...
Have a goodun
Wurzel