Thanks Wurzel and David. Yes, big, floppy dryads - a sign the season is over the hill ...
We had rain and snow last week, with the snow briefly as low as Leysin. Butterfly numbers since then have been very low, though I also have very little time to go out and look for them. This silver-washed fritillary on 16th September is likely to be the last of that species I see at this altitude:
Three days later, on 19th September, my local walk turned up very little indeed. Locally - at one particular spot - there were a few blues, including Adonis, common, Chapman's, chalkhill and northern brown argus, but elsewhere the meadows were largely lifeless. This brimstone looked very fresh:
He's feeding up for hibernation.
In the valley on 14th September, more was flying but it was chilly and clouded over completely by early afternoon. Here is a clouded yellow from that day - not a species that has had a good year:
For once, an emperor dragonfly actually stopped and let me photograph him:
Spotted flycatchers have had an amazing year. I've seen them in large groups almost everywhere I've been. Here is one from 14th September:
One day, I'll get a decent photo of a black woodpecker. A couple of days ago, one ventured out onto a bare branch for a few moments, but unfortunately I was very far away and looking at it into the sun. It's such a brilliant bird that its character shows through even in these awful shots:
And to close, the September full moon:
One night, in 1987, I was meditating on a full moon and it occurred to me my life would span only a finite number of further full moons. A human life is about 1000 full moons in total ... Ever since then, I've sort of been counting down, without knowing what number I'm counting from, of course!!
And so every full moon has become a celebration of life for me!
Guy
This big and dull brown plopped down in front of me and then those eye spots 
