Carnage on the Drive

The Indian Summer rolls on, and with it some more butterfly moments. Foulden Common looking great with late summer flowers - devil's bit scabious all over, with restharrow, agrimony and clustered bellflower also still in flower. Plenty of butterflies jinking about: four speckled woods, five small coppers, three small whites, a comma, a red admiral and a late and very tired-looking meadow brown. Back home, comma, brimstone and peacock in the garden. Pics below thanks to Sue Pennell:

 Devil's bit scabious

 Autumn gentian

Clustered bell-flower

Late afternoon, and great drama on the drive. A male sparrowhawk had landed a pigeon, started to feed and refused to budge, even when confronted by me in the car on my way out. I got out and walked within a foot of the bird - eyes glaring, it stayed in situ, wings mantling the partly-plucked/eaten-but-still-just-about-alive wood pigeon. Quite extraordinary. With the pigeon too heavy to carry, the sparrowhawk gave me one last "how very dare you" look and flew off, only to perch on the wall at the end of the drive, scowling at me. I was hopeful that it would return to claim its prize later, but sadly not as the carcass was still there later, untouched...

It's mine, all mine!