TATTERED, TORN AND FADING AWAY

Whilst out walking earlier this week I couldn't help but notice that most of the butterflies I saw were looking rather the worse for wear, as they now, after showing well all Summer and with Autumn fast approaching, start to come to the end of their life cycle.

Common Blue male

Common Blue female

Meadow Brown male

Meadow Brown female

Chalkhill Blue male

Gatekeeper female

Gatekeeper female

 Note the slightly different (small) spot markings on these two females.

And finally my hero of the day, this badly worn Common Blue male, even in this state, still appeared  able to fly perfectly well, and indeed was rigorously defending 'his patch' from anything that came remotely near!

 

 A great example of how nature is 'hot wired' to do its thing, regardless!

A GOLDEN, GARDEN CHARM......

......or alternatively, a  Charm of Goldfinches in my garden.

 

For the past couple of weeks I've had the pleasure of  watching  up to eight ( 5 adults and 3 juveniles) regularly visiting the sunflower heart feeder in my garden. Together with the odd House Sparrow they seem to be able to empty ( I say empty because most of it seems to be on the ground!) the feeder within a couple days, they are now getting quite tame and will still visit the feeder even when I'm sitting on the garden bench within 3 to 4 yards of them.

Juvenile

The juveniles seem to be newly fledged as they are still begging for, and being fed, food.

(also in the garden and begging for food are newly fledged House Sparrows and Collared Doves)

Begging for food

One of the adults has a leg ring, I've tried zooming in on various images but can't quite get the full set of numbers. so far I've got    .....MUSE..... (obviously for the British Museum)    .....PAR.... and ...8596.... 

 As the ring is so small I'm having to wait for it to revolve around the birds leg to get more of the details!  I don't know if I've enough info yet to get any details on?  It could be interesting though to find out how far this particular bird has travelled.