
Alarm calls from the tree- tops and a great clamour. The jays have a young family. The adults will take eggs and young birds and warning signals sound as the young jays beg for food and take flying lessons. Sunlight pours through the canopy, dazzling.
Flowering grasses grow tall on Kendal Race Course and a small skipper appears on thistles. They settle with forewings raised, a distinctive posture.
Forget the horseflies. Walking through limestone grassland on a summer's day, with butterflies on the wing is sensational. In the final sequence of images I'd like to share something of the experience, moving from overview to close-up. Butterflies all around me, and swifts live up to their name- impossible to photograph. That first glimpse of a nectaring butterfly is thrilling. No idea if it will linger, so the first image shows a surround of fowering grasses, buttercups, red clover, a drift of scabious. Hear the linnet family all about me in the hawthorn as I photograph dark green fritillary. Butterfflies appear when the sun shines and , if I can compose the photograph as I wish, I hope to show sunlight through their wings, the contrast between the texture of the veined wing and the furry body, the constantly changing poise and balance of the insect and the way its legs and its proboscis sink and delve deep into the flower.
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