WILDLIFE HIGHLIGHTS It was the insects that were dominating my wildlife sightings again in August, with plenty more dragonfly and damselfly encounters, plus some fabulous moths and butterflies. Early in the month, Bob and I had a call from one of his friends who had a Striped Hawk-moth in his moth trap that morning. So we headed over to see it, having to wait some time for the weather conditions to be just right. Needless to say, I'd never heard of it before, but as ever, I'm learning about all sorts of new species and I certainly enjoyed the opportunity to photograph this fairly large moth species. It was very impressive, especially when we were able to see the flash of pink on the hindwings. I do like to experiment with my photography, and not just take the standard back-of-wing shot, and so got down low to take a photo from the side, so I could see its eye peering at me.

Our original plan for our trip up to Yorkshire, was to drive direct to Buckton, with rest breaks along the way. It wasn't until we were actually driving north on the A23 that Bob suddenly wondered about the possibility of detouring to Glapthorn Cow Pastures. It's a site in Northamptonshire that is known to be good for Black Hairstreaks - a rare butterfly species in the UK. As I was navigating, I had a quick look on my phone and saw that it would only add about 40 minutes to our journey. Since I'd never seen this butterfly species in its natural woodland habitat - the local colony in East Sussex is of questionable origin, and has most likely been introduced - I was eager to visit this new site. I like being spontaneous and I think Bob was surprised I agreed. In the end, it was the perfect place for us to stop for lunch and enjoy some time in a beautiful quiet woodland. Of the few people there, most were about to leave when we arrived. Bizarrely, I recognised one of them too from back home! It was quite easy to find the ride where the majority of Black Hairstreaks were nectaring. Since it wasn't sunny to begin with, it wasn't too tricky taking some photos as they weren't too flighty. I couldn't believe how many I was seeing. There were several flying around in one small area, and as we ambled up the ride we saw many more - about 30 in total. I saw more in that hour than I had in total prior to that occasion. For the majority of time it was just the two of us in this small stretch of the woodland. It was so peaceful. For the most part, only the sounds of the birds and bees could be heard. It was heavenly!

At the end of May, when we had that first bout of warm spring weather, I headed up to Yorkshire with Bob for a week's holiday. We stayed in lovely self-catering accommodation in Buckton where I'd stayed before on a previous visit to the area, but in a deluxe static caravan instead of one of the cottages. The location was fabulous as it gave us wonderful access to the RSPB nature reserve, Bempton Cliffs. It was only a 30 minute walk to the coast, to the northern end of the nature reserve, or we could drive to the various access points not only at the visitor centre nearby, but further eastwards towards Flamborough Headland. Unfortunately, the good weather only lasted the first two days. Having said that, we were lucky the rest of the week because even though it was windy at times, cloudy mostly, and we had some wet spells, we managed to work around it. As always, we try not to let it affect us too much and we both had an excellent time away. Bob's back was still causing him some grief, having put it out a month prior, so we were careful not to spend too long out on walks, or avoid carrying too much equipment. It was actually lovely having a bit more chill time at the accommodation relaxing and reading. The seabirds were the main draw to the area, and there's a good number of them at Bempton Cliffs. They host over 200,000 breeding seabirds during peak season (March to October). Despite the crash in numbers last year due to bird flu, overall the colony seems to be doing well and bouncing back. It's one of the best places in the country to see Northern Gannets, as it is the largest mainland colony, with an estimated 11,000 to 15,000 breeding pairs.

WILDLIFE HIGHLIGHTS It's been another mega month for wildlife sightings for me, with most of the focus being on dragonflies and damselflies. The summer is a great month for seeing these amazing insects, that dart and flit about erratically catching other smaller insects. Though mostly found by ditches, streams, ponds and lakes, they can also be found in woodland some distance from water sources, where some mature before returning to the place where they emerged. Whilst I still have much to learn about their life cycle, I'm enjoying seeing each of our UK species and learning to identify them. But, to start off this month, it was a butterfly we went in search of. Not just any butterfly, but the Queen of Spain Fritillary - a rare migrant usually found in Northern Africa and mainland Europe - and one I've never seen before. With the warmer summer we've experienced, there have been a few sightings of this gorgeous orange butterfly in the south of England. One of our friends, a fellow butterfly enthusiast, found one in Stoke Bottom, West Sussex. Sadly, when we visited the place, we didn't see any. However, it was a fabulous day out all the same and I was very happy to see not only a mating pair of Small Whites (photo) but also a mating pair of Large Whites too.

THE THIRD SET OF BOOKS AND COURSES THAT HAVE HELPED ME ON MY JOURNEY Continuing where I left off in the last post in this blog series, Books and Course 2 , here are more books and courses that have helped me along my healing journey. Hopefully, it will prove helpful to anyone else who is in need of some physical, emotional and/or spiritual healing. Many of the books included below were massively impactful for me and rank in my top 10 that have had the most influence. You can see a list of all the books mentioned in these blog posts by clicking on the button below.