the art of hovering.

The garden is awash with hoverflies this summer, I have never seen them in such abundance.

It is often said that whatever man might do, nature has already done it, but better. (Well, apart from inventing the wheel that is). Helicopter pilots battling to keep their noisy machines in the hover must look at hoverflies in total awe. Their ability to hover at a fixed point in the air is truly mesmerising.

This pair aren't, of course hovering but walking around a daisy flower in search of pollen and nectar. That's something else that helicopters can't do, walk!