There is much talk of the importance of mindfulness while we are dealing with #lockdown in the #Covid19 #pandemic. Today we went for a wander around Sapperton and found a public footpath through a corner of the Bathurst Estate, beside a tinkling Cotswold stream. Listening to the soundscape - flowing water, bees and birdsong - and thinking of my aim to help people connect to nature, if only virtually, I decided this would be today's #BrightenYourDay video, the 87th in the series. Unlike every other one, this focuses on the ambience of a location - put on earphones or turn up your speakers and empty your mind of all but the soothing soundscape...

Well, that was the initial idea, but the trouble with #mindfulness #meditation in a #naturalist is that we have a mind full of curiosity, and it wasn't long before I felt the need to lift the camera to film a buff-tailed bumblebee on red campion flowers, then to track along the mossy log bridge, festooned with grasses, bluebell and ragged robin, and finally to raise the camera to see the hillside of woods and pasture. A lovely landscape to match the soundscape.

A few paces further on, the path emerged into sunshine and my eye was caught by several dark damselflies darting to and fro over the stream, then settling for tantalisingly short rests. These were males of the aptly named Beautiful Demoiselle Calopteryx virgo, hard to film on the wing with my "can o'beans" camera, but if you hit pause on the last shot and you'll see what a spectacular insect this is, with iridescent metallic green head and thorax, and the long abdomen mostly hidden by dark blue wings. More info at:
https://british-dragonflies.org.uk/species/beautiful-demoiselle/
https://www.gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk/