Cévennes macro morning

I’m in the Cévennes for a week with some friends staying at a restored shepherd’s cottage. Yesterday’s rain was hard and the morning after was the kind of damp-warm that brings everything out. I took the macro and the short zoom for a walk up the ridge path.

Butterflies first: Scarce Swallowtail was the surprise of the morning, floating along a thyme-covered slope. Marbled White everywhere. A Brimstone, a Clouded Yellow, some Common Blue that wouldn’t sit still. A Pearly Heath in the grass, modest and nice.

Beetles and other things: a Rose Chafer on a wild rose, big and green and serious. A Green Tiger Beetle that let me get two frames before it moved. A mantis (probably European Mantis) on a fennel stalk — too high up to shoot cleanly.

Bee work: several Carpenter Bees, enormous and blue-purple in the light, working bramble. A female Mason Bee (I think) on a wall. A Hornet worked a Buddleja bush later in the morning and I gave it space.

Birds incidentally: Corn Bunting calling, Cirl Bunting seen and heard, and a pair of Bee-eaters on the wires coming back to the village. Bee-eaters are possibly the prettiest bird in Europe.