In July the birds go quiet and birdwatchers become butterfly watchers.  The Mounts are an old clay quarry, rubbish dump, school playing fields, and now a sort of unofficial park where people walk their dogs among the overgrown grass. The numerous thistle flowers usually bring in the butterflies at this time of year, and in the good weather they didn't disappoint - although there were far fewer speckled woods this year, we saw lots of painted ladies.  The latter we usually see one every couple of year; this time we saw them so often we could tell they must have bred.  And as well as the usual meadow browns, gatekeepers and commas, we saw a small copper which is apparently quite rare!

Up on the Mounts, the weather can get a little weird due to the unusual geography - the area is split into a "top field" and a "bottom field" separated by a small cliff.  In November and especially December, the mists can roll downhill and settle in the bottom field, or blow over the fence on the top field.

This appears to be a mass of Harlequin Ladybirds emerging from their larval stage en masse, using the wooden handrail and brick wall at a local college. Most were static, or walking around with their wings out (drying?); some seemed to be gathering in the cracks between fence and posts.

Not brilliant shots, as they were taken quickly with my point and click camera with no flash, no tripod in low light, and stripes on some of the images since I got water on the back of the camera.