Making me smile today

A new butterfly for me. A small copper male. According to the butterfly web sites, these are very territorial and frequently chase off other insects. I must have the wimp of the family because the minute a bee came along he disappeared in the opposite direction.







We had some very heavy rain showers this morning, then the sun came out and all the birds started to sunbathe. That looks like a dead robin on the left but I assure you he was just lying on his side drying his tum. The dunnock also spent a long time preening. It's the closest I've managed to get to one of these shy little birds. There are three regulars in the garden but they are very wary and disappear the minute I point the camera at them. The thrush has also been much shyer than the blackbirds, robins, finches and sikins but the sun today was too much to resist and he lay by the wiegela stretching his wings in pleasure. That's the robin again in the foreground.