I walked into the spare bedroom today and found a butterfly just sitting on the carpet. It’s the 21st butterfly I’ve had in my house this year and I’m seriously considering changing my house from a number to a name: The Butterfly House 🦋. I carefully picked it up, took it outside and placed it on a flowering Hebe in the garden. When I went out to check on it a few hours later it had flown away 🙂.

Last week I walked into the office and found 2 butterflies in the windowsill. Sadly one was deceased but the other was alive and was encouraged to fly out of the window.

The week before I was in the spare bedroom and there were 2 butterflies in the windowsill. Again, one was clearly dead and to be honest the other one was on its last legs, so I warmed some water into which I dissolved sugar, placed this into the cap off a bottle of water, spilled some of the sugar water onto the window sill and carefully placed the butterfly right next to it, keeping my fingers crossed it had the strength to have a drink. I then went out into my front garden where I have 2 Hebes in pots, cut off a flowering stem and placed that right next to the sugar water in the hopes that the butterfly would be able to feed. I went in the next day to find the butterfly with its wings open flitting about, yayyy! So I opened the window and out it flew 😊.

It’s mind blowing to me that I’m finding butterflies in my house at all, let alone in November! All 21 have been Tortoiseshells and I have no clue how or why they are getting in. Not that I mind, in fact it’s a beautiful thing to be living in a house of butterflies, but once in they can’t seem to get back out and I don’t want them dying in here!

At lunchtime I was stood by the hob stirring a pot of spag bol when into my garden flew a Sparrow Hawk 😮. I know they’re predators and I hate it when they eat my little Sparrows, but they are magnificent and I was desperate to get a photo. Trouble is, my kitchen window is over 2 metres long and you can clearly see movement in the room from the garden. So I had to wait until the Sparrow hawk was looking away to quickly nash and get my camera. My hands fumbled as I tried in haste to attach my zoom lens and chose the settings I use for bird photography, increasing the ISO as it’s been overcast and raining here today.

I snuck my head back round the kitchen door, again waited until the Hawk was distracted, then hopped quickly up to sit on the worktop. Initially I shot through the glass, but eventually was able to crank open the window enough for me to get my lens through without the Hawk flying off. This image is straight out of the camera with no editing, just don’t ask me where its other leg is as I have no clue 😂.

Thankfully no prey was caught (although the bird wouldn’t see it that way) probably because it was chucking down and all the Sparrows were sheltering, but I had about 10 gorgeous minutes watching this magnificent creature on the hunt.