Meadow Browns on Hogweed

I was relatively early out with Pepper this morning and took a walk to a local church for wild flowers - lots of oxeye daisies but everything else had been mown.  Continuing on around the lanes,  I became aware of the vast numbers of butterflies - the Meadow Brown - on the hogweed and thistles.  At first it seemed 'a lot', then 'quite a few', then 'hundreds' but there must have been literally 'thousands'! Rarely still and vying for space on the plants, they were endlessly moving. Fortunately  the council has done no trimming of verges here off the main road and the insects are maximising on the opportunity.  Pepper would just lie down and wait when I paused for some photography - and this was one morning when I would have benefitted with the macro lens - maybe tomorrow.

Family zoom followed by a roast chicken dinner  - Edward was able to join us in our 'bubble' and it's lovely to see him looking good and remaining cheerful.