Fluttering by

Today was a scorcher so we went for a swim at one of the local lakes. I'm not one for swimming really so after baking in the sun and hiding in the shade for a few hours, I went on a wildlife photography expedition around the lake.




I spotted a few grass hoppers but they wouldn't sit still long enough for me to snap one. I nearly got one between the teeth though.

This strange creature turned out to be a white praying mantis and seemed to be quite happy to have his photo taken...




...he even tried a couple of catalogue poses for me!





After crawling around in the muck photographing him for a while, I moved onto the meadow plants to try and spot some butterflies.




There were plenty to choose from. The grass was a buzz with lots of varieties, flitting from flower to flower and leaf to leaf, in and out of the reeds and frolicking together just above the water.




I spotted this blue butterfly fluttering about in the grass. When you see him with his wings shut, he looks like a completely different butterfly. A lovely pale gold with just a tiny hint of the blue you'll see on the inside just by his body.



And then when he opens his wings, the almost purple shade of bright blue on his inner wing outlined by the faintest black border is a real surprise. There were loads of these flying around but they don't stay still for long so there was some real stealth photography and Indiana Jones style rolling around in the grass to be done here!




And the most beautiful creature of all? Well, it's sleeping beauty of course!

Location:St Clair, South of France