Under Clear Skies

American Copper

Is it just me that finds summer essentially depressing? I’ve always found the season to be somewhat melancholy, but now I am a birder the pain is doubled by the complete lack of anything worth birding for. Once you’ve lived somewhere long enough to get all the usual suspects that breed locally, there hardly seems to be a reason to leave the house in June or July.

For me the main excitement to be found in local birding is that random factor that you get in migration. Even in the depths of winter there appears to be stuff on the move summer however just appears as a dead zone on my birding calendar. Anyway to keep myself even remotely sane I decided that this year I’d at least take a passing interest in the local butterflies. Armed with my girlfriends camera I even managed to get a few nice shots of stuff.

Although butterflies aren’t going to be taking up much of my time once the birds start moving again it has at least given me the impetus to get outdoors for the last month or two. If you haven’t delved into them yet there are certainly worse ways to kill time between migration and if you think shorebirds are tough try getting your head around the world of skippers!