Beautiful Io

Lovely day here in Essex once the mist had cleared. The blackthorn is now in peak flower, none of the blooms have started to fade yet. It's a magnet for all sorts of bees and hoverflies, including drone flies. These are weird, they hover almost threateningly above one's head. Plenty of beeflies supping the nectar too. 

A brimstone butterfly made a number of passes but was too busy to stop. A pair of peacock butterflies hung around for most of the afternoon. Sometimes they perched together, he tapping her wings. Now and again they spiralled up into the blue in an aerial love ballet.

It is fairly easy to get a shot so I tried for something different. I was quite pleased with some images that I took of their spread wings from directly below. I like the muted colours of the reverse that one normally sees when the wings are folded. However, when it came to choosing a pic to Blip I couldn't resist posting the peacock's exotic pattern and colours.