Dragons and Bugs at Whixall moss may 2016

Two days of bug hunting for me now ,   Firstly a morning shooting anything i can find along the Whixall Moss reserve :)    a lovely warm day and there should be loads to shoot .

                       First subject is a St Marks fly  aka  March fly  , Biblio species.
black and hairy with shiny body makes for a difficult exposure on these flies .

Waking along the canal bank i have just spotted a Spotted eye Dronefly, Eristalinus sepulchralis .  i very rarely see these , there are 2 species, one lives in coastal areas whereas  this species is found mainly in marshy areas.
i manage to get just a couple of frames before it disappears .

                 On to the mosses and i quickly spot a large Adder , but it was too quick for me !!!!!

                     A Large Red Damselfly perched near where i usually find the Green Hairstreaks.

                                 Its a bit dull but a couple of Green Hairstreaks are flying.

I am now at the far end along the canal bank on the boardwalk section,  hopefully to find a few Raft Spiders on the pools.

I cant believe what i have just found!     an Emperor Moth ,  i have never seen one of these before.

        Here is a Raft Spider, Dolomedes Fimbriatus. Time to put the mpe-65 macro lens on

That's better..........

                                                            Just come out of the water

                                                 A Brimstone feeding on the canal bank

                                                                    And a Speckled Wood

                                                                     Noisy creatures  lol

                                    The end of a great morning , Dragon hunting next

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.

  

A Review of 2011 Butterfly Adventures April - June

Since its the end of the year,  i think its a good time to post a review of all the species of uk butterfly i have shot this year.     these are just a few of the butterfly shots, they can all be viewed  HERE

So these are a few of my favourites :)    not necessarily the best!

starting off with a back lit Brimstone shot on the canal alongside whixall moss in Shropshire 17/4/11

       at whixall moss 22/4/11 i shot Speckled wood and one of my favourite species, the Green hairstreak!

Next to shoot was an Orange tip,  15/5/11,  shot in my back garden

on 19/5/11 at whixall moss i shot this green veined white on a dandylion seed head, it was quite windy and was very difficult to get a sharp image!

            And a head shot taken with mpe-65 macro lens and focus stacked to increase depth of field :)

                            25/5/11   at Rixton clay pits i found my first common blue of the year

  The first small copper was shot at whixall moss 31/5/11,  got really lucky shooting this!  they are normally quite skittish  but this one just sat on the stem which i was holding in my left hand while sheltering it from a brisk breeze!

In june , my fav Silver studded blue emerged in large numbers at Prees heath in Shropshire,  i will show a few of my best images from a couple of trips :)

                                                                            and a female

and while at prees , shot my first small heath and meadow brown :)

                                                                     and a large skipper!

That was the end of June,  the season really got going in July, with so many new species that i had not seen!

more in next blog :)

Phil

all images taken with canon 5d2 and 100mmL macro handheld.