Country diary: trolling for butterflies under a bridge

Caistor St Edmund, Norfolk: I enter a secret world, hidden and immersed in darkness, with just the trickle of the stream, to find 10 curious creaturesFor fear my behaviour might seem odd, I wait, sitting casually on the side of the bridge until the last group of walkers has moved on. Only then do I jump down the three-foot drop, landing with a splash into the ankle-deep stream. Crouching low, I move under the bridge, my torch lighting the gloom.I enter a secret world, hidden and immersed in darkness, with just the trickle of the stream. The noise of my wading footsteps is magnified. With the torch, I scan the underside of the wooden sleepers that make this bridge, and at first I think I'm unlucky. Then I spot, hanging like a dry brown leaf, the first peacock butterfly, with its flocked texture and muted browns. Now that my eyes know what to find, I discover 10 of them, some clustered in little groups. Continue reading...