Beautiful Hairstreaks and a Big Shock 3rd sept 2012

Today was to be my final Butterfly trip of the year, so sad to think the season is over. But today's species the Brown Hairstreak is probably one of the most beautiful , and so rarely seen.  i always seem to be lucky when i visit Grafton wood in Worcestershire , except 2 weeks ago when they didn't show themselves :)  but all species are late this year, compared to last year when i visited on 17 th Aug and 24 th Aug.  . So today has to be my only chance this year , fingers crossed the weather is looking perfect, warm and sunny :)   i arrive at Grafton flyford at 10.25 am  and parked by the church, the best time to see the female hairstreaks is between 11 and 1.30 for some reason.
i make my way through the farmyard , past the cows and down the track to the wood and start looking along the blackthorn hedges along the way, i have already noticed that some of them have been flailed already Arghhhh.   all the fresh growth that the butterflies usually lay on has been destroyed but at least it has been done Before the eggs have been laid.

I have arrived at one of the best areas, just where the  track branches to the left to go towards the "orchard" a noted hotspot.  i watched Hairstreaks laying eggs here last year so i am giving it a good search but not a sign of any unfortunately. i carry on walking and come to a recently flailed section, and almost straight away i have just spotted my first Brown Hairstreak of the year, perched at eye level  Yay!

i only managed the one shot before she flew high up into the tree :(       but she was perched nicely so out comes the 300mm lens and i manage to take a few images, this is the best one.

then she suddenly flew down onto the blackthorn about 12 ft from me, at eye level again , perfect i though and proceed to take these images,  the blue sky really making a good background to show off these beautiful butterflies :)

she didn't stay long and fluttered of over the hedge , so i continue along towards the orchard, as you can see in this image , cattle wires have been put up since last time which might be a problem trying to get close to any butterflies low down!

 walking all the way along the hedge , through the orchard and have seen nothing , not even any dragonflies which is quite unusual for this area.   i did however shoot this Brimstone feeding :)

i have started walking back towards the place i shot the first one and as i was looking up at the blackthorn a fellow photographer coming the opposite way shouted my name , it was Dave who i have met previously. we started talking and suddenly he shouted out  "THERE'S ONE"   low down on the blackthorn , then i spotted another one about 12 ft to the right :)   they where basking in the sun and then occasionally going down a blackthorn stem looking for a suitable spot to lay eggs .

            i decided to try shooting a video clip, its not great and sound no good obviously  lol

i followed one along the hedgerow for about 40 ft and it perched perfectly on a leaf tip, unfortunately the electrified cattle wires were in the way!  i knelt down and put the camera between the wires, keeping my eye on where the wire was , i almost had a perfectly composed in focus image in the viewfinder when "BANG" i was knocked backwards into Dave!   he said " are you alright"   my forehead must have touched the wire  Arghhhh    i have touched these low voltage wires before and they do give a large jolt ,but in the head was completely different.

     my head was ringing and a big headache coming on!!!  and on top of that i Didn't get the shot!

  i felt a bit dizzy for about 5 minutes after this incident!  the things we do to get a perfect shot :D
walking up and down this hedgerow we spotted 3 or 4 different Hairstreaks laying eggs intermittently , here are a few images

watching them laying eggs, they are crawling right down to almost ground level , making it impossible to photograph. presumably because all the higher growth had been flailed, walking down a blackthorn stem and resting for a while in the sun before seemingly looking for a suitable leaf joint to lay in.
  i have managed this video clip of one attempting to lay an egg , could not see whether she had actually layed one for sure though!

         here is an image of an egg shot last year at high magnification, size approx 0.7 mm diameter.

                    look at this , perfect perch and a dam grass stem gives a shadow  Arghhhhhhhh

                           another really bad video clip, by now my head is really hurting!!

This one is feeding on what looks like honeydew dripped from an ivy plant above onto the leaf.

I

By now i decided to go and have a look around the rest of the wood,saying good bye to Dave,i start with the pond , hopefully get a few dragonfly shots.  there are a few migrant and southern hawkers flying but not perching as usual, but i have just spotted what looks like a Ruddy Darter , using 300mm lens i got this shot

walking into the wood along the main track that runs right down the centre i take a side path to go and check out the very good blackthorn on the outer edge of the wood , there are some wonderful "lone" trees in the fields, always wondered WHY!

i have searched all the blackthorn and spotted no Brownies :(     but i have just shot a lovely Comma near to this old building.

                                     and opening wings to show the bright colouration :)

making my way back onto the main track and have come across an area with loads of freshly emerged Brimstones :)    amazing , i can see about 8 all within  10 ft.

leaving them to carry on feeding i want to check on the flowers down at the opposite end of the main path , this is where the male brown hairstreaks come down to feed in the afternoon. when i arrive all i can see are hoverflys, hundreds feeding on the flower heads, and one common darter dragonfly which i have shot with 300mm lens.

making my way around to the bridalway i notice a nice spider on one of the fence posts, cant resist a quick natural light shot :)

again i have not seen anything else along this track so back into the wood , as i pass the Brimstone spot i take another image :)

My head is really banging now, i just have to head home, really not feeling good!     a quick Nutty shot on the way back.

 This was the last Butterfly trip of the year,  its been a very good season considering the really bad weather we have had this year and numbers are well down on previous years, but  i have seen 45 species,way more than i expected :D

                 I had quite bad headaches for about 4 days after the electric head shock,

             "note to self - never touch cattle wire with head again"   Arghhhhhhhh

Grafton Wood in search of Butterflies and Bugs 20th aug 2012

It was now time to head off in search of my favourite butterfly , the Brown Hairstreak. it is later than i saw them last year and virtually no sightings had been reported at Grafton Wood in Worcestershire, but since it was going to be a nice day it had to be worth a trip as there are plenty of other things to shoot :)
arriving about 9.30am in the village of Grafton Flyford and parking by the church, i made my way through the farmyard and down to the wood.  the fields around the wood are mainly blackthorn, this is where the female Brown Hairstreaks will be seen.

Searching all the way along the only butterflies i have seen so far are meadow browns and this Gatekeeper.  not a sign of a hairstreak, but it is a little early for them, 11 - 2 pm best time so there was still a chance yet :)

continuing into the "orchard" area i first found a Large Horsefly perched on a fence post, i really love their eyes, so beautiful but deadly  lol  this portrait is shot with canon mpe-65 macro lens ,5 frames focus stacked to increase depth of field.i placed a green leaf behind to prevent a black background .

                   one of the many Meadow Browns feeding on a Teasel head , looking a bit tatty now !

after a good search though the orchard i have spotted a few migrant hawker dragonflies , and managed to get this image.  they have been a species that eluded me , often seeing them flying but never perching for a photo :)

I have decided to now walk through to the small pond just inside the wood ,near to the corner of the orchard , but suddenly spot a beautiful yellow crab spider waiting for a meal  , so on with the mpe again to shoot her :)      i cant hold a leaf behind to give background colour, so i shoot at higher iso ,  800 in this case,  to balance natural light with the flash preventing a complete black background.

after shooting her i walk down to the small pond , loads of migrant hawkers, common darters and a few ruddy darters are flying around but not perching!    also 3 hornets are hunting bees and i watch these for about half an hour, awesome to watch but they just don't settle for a pic unfortunately.  i do however find loads of Dark Bush Crickets , here is one image .

Time to look through the wood now, there is a central path right through the middle which i take , about half way along i turn left to go search for Brown Hairstreaks on the outer edge blackthorn.  i have always wondered why these two trees are out in the middle of this field?  strange

unfortunately no Hairstreaks are spotted , so back to the main path in the wood where i find in one very small area 6 newly emerged Brimstones .  i have never seen so many together before!

walking down the path there are loads of hoverflies and Bees feeding , a fox darts in front of me into the undergrowth! that's a pity, would have like a shot of one  lol    then while watching hovers i notice a bright blue flash!   it is one of the most beautiful flies there are , if you can call a fly beautiful haha  it is Phasia Hemiptera i very rarely see these , almost 2 years since i shot my last one so just have to get a shot this time.  luckily after a few moments i spot it feeding and get this single image  .

nearby there are more Dark Bush Crickets , and luckily i find this one perched on a single grass stem, superb perch for composition :)    this is my best image of the day!

down near the end of the main path is a large clump of flowers that in previous years male Brown Hairstreaks have been known to feed on , so i make my way to have a look.    unfortunately again no sign of any, but i did shoot this common darter dragonfly with long lens .

its been a long day of walking and searching , no sightings of my intended species but a good day none the less.  on the way back i shoot one of our most beautiful butterflies, the Peacock

                                                                   and a Small Copper

the end of another trip, i will be back in a week or 2 to hopefully see and photograph the Hairstreaks but it has been a good day.


                 all images shot with canon 5d2,100mmLmacro and Mpe-65 macro lens

Honey Bee Portrait Grafton Wood

Early in the morning on the previous brown hairstreak trip to Grafton wood , while walking along the main central path through the wood i came across a cold honey bee trying to warm itself in the first rays of sunlight .
This was too good an opportunity to miss , as i very rarely actually see honey bees so had to make the most of the chance to shoot a few high magnification portraits.

It was perched on top of a small white flower, i have no idea what it was!  lol    but i could hold the stem between two fingers on left hand , and then rest the lens barrel of the mpe-65 macro lens on my palm to keep everything steady to shoot the individual frames for the focus stack.

Focus stacking is a method of combining multiple frames, each with a slightly different focus point into a single image with a much greater depth of field than a single frame could produce.  at high magnifications diffraction softening occurs so i shoot each frame at f5 - f6.3 to produce the sharpest image possible.

Even using this method it can be quite difficult to align 5- 7 frames good enough for the stacking software to align properly.  shooting between x4 and x5 magnification is very challenging , a minute movement will prevent the frames aligning causing a doubled appearance!  i some situations , with just three or four frames i can manually stack the frames on layers in photoshop, but it does take a while to do !

here are the two finished images

In this second frame you can see a black background in the left hand side because the flash only illuminates the subject and no light can reach the background .  i always try to place a leaf or something close behind the main subject to prevent this happening.

here is the flash / diffuser set up used for these two images ,  i have added a twin sheet "tent style" diffuser to the front of the lens which spreads the light nicely .

     bee shots taken with canon 5d2, mpe-65 and 430ex flash gun