Butterfly Review pt3 july 11th - 31st august 2011

Continuing the review of my butterfly adventures,  another trip to Oversley wood hoping to see more Purple Emperors,  just as i got in the car park, Gill arrived which was unexpected, so i had good company for the day :)    unfortunately no Emperors were to be seen, and very few butterflies considering it was such a warm sunny day!!!!   i did shoot a ringlet Lol

then a stunning Peacock :)

As there where so few butterfies showing , Gill suggested we take a look at a place called "Deans Green "  which is near Henly in Arden.  not too far away, evidently there are good numbers of Marbled whites there!

She was correct, there were loads of them along with Gatekeepers

It ended up another great trip with all the other species of insect shot that day :)

My next trip was july 19 th , back up at Arnside Knott in Cumbria hoping to see freshly emerging Scotch Argus :)

First a walk down to the lower terraces to see if any High brown fritillaries were showing!  here is one of the rarest uk butterflies on my finger!   how cool is that !

And my target species , the Scotch Argus.  another extremely rare butterfly, only found in Cumbria at 2 or 3 sites and in Scotland.

My next trip was july 23 again at Arnside

a beautiful Common blue

and a Northern brown Argus laying eggs!

The next day i went back to Oversley wood , but only managed a few Silver washed fritillary shots, here we have male and female shots

Next trip was back yet again to arnside on the 25 july

on the lower terraces this beautiful Painted lady landed right on the path in front of me :)

1st August i was at Whixall moss in Shropshire, where i shot the beautiful Small copper:)

and a Speckled wood.

The next trip was on the 14 th August, a long trip down to Grafton wood in Worcestershire to hopefully see another of uks most elusive and probably one of the most beautiful species, the Brown Hairstreak :)

first i found a Brown Argus

and a Small Tortoishell

Finally after over 3 hours i saw my first ever Brown Hairstreak,  WOW! they are absolutely stunning!

Definitely one of the most beautiful uk butterflies!

And a male feeding! note he is quite dull in colouration in comparison to the females.

 a White !

after seeing 6 Brown Hairstreak i went back to Grafton wood  the following sunday 21st  and had an amazing day, eventually seeing 9 individuals!!!!!!!

                          My last butterfly shot in 2011 was at whixall moss, a small copper!

                                                   That trip ended my 2011 Butterfly Adventures

                                             all images shot with canon 5d2 and 100mmL macro lens

                                                                           And finally
       I would like to thank Gillian Thompson for all her help , advice  and good company on so many trips in  2011,    many of this years butterfly images would not have been possible without her help.

                                                                        Thank you Gill :)      

                                     Looking forward to many more great butterfly adventures in 2012

                                                                                  Phil.