Nymphs and Satyrs, etc.

 When it comes to giving butterflies English names, the Canadians have done rather better than us Brits. In England, the romance of butterfly naming (as recounted in this book) is largely buried in the Latin nomenclature, but in Canada it is more overt: we named the butterfly families Nymphalidae and Satyridae, but the Canadians have Nymphs and Satyrs – including the beautiful Common Wood Nymph, which I'm seeing every day around here, and the Little Wood Satyr – and there are even Elfins. The darker of the numerous Skippers are called Duskywings (a name that would suit our sadly named Dingy Skipper very well) and the smallest of the them (also abundant around here, and very small indeed) the Least Skipper or Skipperling. Some of the Blues are called Azures, Fritillaires included the Aphrodite and the Freija – and of course the Camberwell Beauty is much better named as the Mourning Cloak. 
  The birds are often well named too. Yesterday we saw a Piping Plover, a 'near endangered' species, trotting about on the beach near where a small protected colony lives (we didn't hear it piping though). At the same place we lunched in a restaurant with a live webcam feed from a nearby Osprey's nest, where a single chick and one or other of its parents were getting on with their rather uneventful lives. And the day before, just down the road, I saw a Bald Eagle at the top of a dead tree barely twenty yards away, being relentless harried by Bluejays until at last it had had enough, spread its huge wings and flew away.