I've been busy at the Dorset County Show all weekend so no new films (apart from some spaniels and a monster truck) so here's another one I took in August...
I'm used to watching butterflies but I never realised that they watch us as well!
I was walking along the Rodwell Trail last week and found this holly blue butterfly resting on an ivy leaf.
The Rodwell Trail is a popular footpath and cycle route, linking Weymouth and Portland along the old railway line.
Today it was a very busy spot, as locals were collecting damsons from the many bushes along the Trail.
Holly blues are one of the eight blue butterflies found in the UK, all of which look very similar at first. This is the only one you are likely to see in your garden, as it depends on holly and ivy for its larvae to feed on whereas the other blues need species only found in grassland areas. I was pleased to find this one being unusually co-operative as it sat still on an ivy leaf at a convenient height for me to film. But when I downloaded the video back at home I could hardly believe my eyes! In this next sequence the butterfly clearly watches people as they pass by on the trail. You can see it moving its head as they pass, something I've never seen a butterfly do before.
And as if that wasn't weird enough at the very end of the video the butterfly looks right and left and right again before it flies off!