Marbled whites at Ryton wood meadows july 15th

I finally got a chance to go and see one of my favourite species, the Marbled Whites.  last year i saw them at Oversley wood and Deans green meadow.  but this year i decided to go down to Ryton wood meadows near Coventry to see them, and hopefully see Silver Washed Fritillarys also.
Arriving at the Butterfly Conservation reserve i parked up and made my way into the meadow, it was quite breezy but the sun was out and i should not have any problem finding a few Marbleds :)
                                     
                                                                      The Meadow

i soon found a few flying but could not get near them, they also perch in the long grass which is going to make it much more difficult to get a decent shot!    then i found a mating pair perched on a single stem, Yay!  perfect, but with the breeze i just couldn't get all the wings in focus!  arghhh      but its not too bad.

                                                 and i managed to get them on my finger :)

Making my way across the meadow there where loads of them, but chasing them through very long grass just didn't work!  sigh.  but i had fun trying  haha   but i did get this small skipper shot.

I got to the top corner where there is a large clump of shrubs which made a good wind break, and amongst these beautiful pink mallow flowers, i found another pair of marbleds :)

                                                     what a beautiful image they make

 i may as well get the mpe-65 out and shoot a portrait also :)  this image is five frames focus stacked to increase depth of field.

I am now entering Ryton wood itself now , after all the recent rain it is very much flooded on all the main tracks,  i have never seen a wood so bad in summer, Ever!!!!!!

the long straight glides hopefully will have both Silver washed fritts and white admirals , but after over an hour i still haven't seen any!  this is not looking good. then suddenly i got a fleeting glimpse of a White Admiral , But that was all!   never mind.  making my way back to the meadow i came across a Silver washed fritillary nectoring, a quick change to my 70-300 lens i managed this one shot , not that good but at least i got it  haha   these are the largest uk Fritillary , stunning to watch flying down the glades in mature woodland. maybe i should have gone to Oversley where a good population of silver washed are present.

and very soon afterwards i came across a Comma , i have seen very few of these this year so far.

i went to get closer and it FELL on to the ground playing dead!   amazing  lol.   i picked it up to get a closer look.  superb camouflage

Back onto the meadow to find some more Marbleds, the sun had gone behind ever increasing cloud and they were low down in the grass making good pictures impossible!   these two are the best i managed , but did watch a few females scattering eggs which was good to see.

the end of a really frustrating trip , i did see a few new species for the year but not too many good images taken.    never mind, loads more trips to go on over the next few weeks :)


                              all images taken with canon 5d2,100mmL & mpe-65 and 70-300is

Ryton Wood again Oct 15th

Another trip to ryton wood,  weather again not looking too promising but its better to be out shooting!
There had been a heavy dew overnight so a few dewy spider web shots would be possible.

I started off on the same narrow path where i shot the tree bumble bee on the previous trip,  the devils bit scabious were still flowering and as there were plenty of dew drops on the grass stems, i decided to shoot my first dewdrop refraction of the season.   this image consists of 6 frames focus stacked ,, each one with a slightly different focal point so when combined all parts of the tiny drop are in focus . the best dewdrops are approx 1- 1.5 mm that are perfectly spherical !

Also there were plenty of dew laden webs, with and without spiders in residence!  lol

Walking on into the centre of the wood i found numerous ladybirds, mostly covered in dew !     here i one shot i managed.

I now found myself near the centre of the wood where all the paths meet , and decided as there were plenty of oak trees i would see if i could find some purple hairstreak eggs which are laid next to the leaf buds where the caterpillars bury into to feed when the hatch next spring!    here is the area as pictured in the last trips blog.

On the second branch i inspected i was amazed to have actually found two eggs!   how amazing was that!!!

I continued walking around the wood , looking to find subjects to shoot but there was absolutely nothing bug like to be found!        until i came across an interesting fungi colony on a dead tree stump.  so i set up my tripod which i very rarely do for macro and set about shooting natural light focus stacks at different magnifications.   here are the resulting three images at different magnifications.

I had a quick look around the country park but found nothing more to shoot, so just one image of padgets pool to finish with.

All images shot with canon 5d2, 100mm L and mpe-65

Ryton Wood and Country Park sept 25th

A return visit to Ryton wood the following sunday,  i wanted to have a good look around the wood and the country park which i didn't manage to do on the last "fun" trip!  lol
I started off walking into the wood area along a narrow path with loads of devils bit scabious flowers, so should find something to shoot.   the weather was not great , overcast with drizzle so didn't expect to find many insects on the flowers early on , but to my surprise i found a large bumble bee feeding.  i did not recognise this species and had not seen one similar before.  the light was not very good so had to shoot at iso 640 and f5.6 to get a decent 1/160th shutter speed. 
This bee has been identified as a Tree Bumble Bee   bombus hypnorum , a species that was only found in this country i believe in 2001 in the south and has been spreading northwards.

As i walked further into the wood  pictured below,   not knowing where i was going   lol

  I managed to find a few ladybirds to shoot,  here is one i found on a dead tree stump and had to bury the mpe lens into the moss to get a nice low angle to get a nice composition!
This is a single frame at f13   full flash  mpe-65 at about x2 magnification full frame 5d2

It was while i was shooting this image i received a text from Gill , she had arrived at the car park and obviously having seen my car and wanted to know if i was here and where i was!!!
 Stupid question i thought at the time, especially because i was by now completely LOST!    yes she thought that was hilarious!     she still hadnt given me a map! lol    i would meet her later on in the country park where she was continuing the brown hairstreak egg survey.

Here is another shot taken from in the wood., this particular area is where i will find my first ever purple hairstreak eggs a couple weeks time.  another blog to be written!

This is where i found a my second acorn weevil,   after finding one on the last trip to ryton meadows.

here is the cute tiny weevil on my finger !

and on a leaf!

I eventually found my way out of the wood after about an hour!    and walked into the country park to find Gill,  just moments after she had found a triple brown hairstreak egg cluster on the blackthorn.

Here i am shooting the egg cluster [ photos shot by Gill  ]

As you can see, i am holding the stem in my left hand while resting the mpe lens on same hand, if my hand moves both camera and stem move together so stay aligned when shooting the individual frames for the focus stack.

Here is the resulting finished focus stacked egg image, each egg is approx 0.7 mm diameter!

After shooting this we spent all afternoon having fun searching the country park and surrounding area for more eggs,while getting slashed by brambles and spiked from blackthorns  lol   it is actually great fun, believe me!!!!!!!

later in the early evening i shot the trees that had just started to change colour ,and then...

Gillian kindly let me shoot her portrait in the beautiful warm evening light !

She thinks the colour is too strong, but i think this represents the light perfectly , when compared to a shot taken a few minutes earlier which looked very cold !

a perfect end to a great day :)

all shots taken with canon 5d2, 100mmL macro and mpe-65

Fun at Ryton Wood Meadows

On 04/09/11   i travelled south again down to ryton wood meadows near Coventry, for the Warwickshire Butterfly Conservations brown hairstreak blitz ,  the weather was not looking good to see any of the adults ,it was pouring down all the way , but started to clear up as i reached the car park.
  Gillian Thompson had been searching for the brown hairstreak eggs on the blackthorn over the previous three weeks with exceptional success ,  the count was up to about 325 eggs !  so i would easily be able to photograph them at high magnification.

I met Gill and while she started egg hunting i decided to shoot a few of the local inhabitants !   here is one of the longhorn cattle that are grazing the meadow!  lol 

And  a few local spiders to shoot first -

Then managed a shot of a scorpionfly and a wet tachinid fly.

With a few shots done it was time to meet the group from butterfly conservation to be shown around the reserve , it was led by Mike Slater and he showed us where the different butterfly species are to be found in the meadows and the nearby woods.  hopefully next season i will be able to find them quite easily :)

Now it was time to join Gill back along the boundary between the wood and the meadows to photograph the brown hairstreak eggs,  this is when the fun started !!!!!!!
Because the eggs are so small, approx 0.7 mm  i had to shoot with canon mpe-65 macro lens at its maximum x5 magnification, which is quite difficult, and today for some reason i really struggled to get a decent series of shots to focus stack!    here is a double egg shot with a second image with a finger tip for scale!

The fun soon started while looking for eggs, with Gill being attacked by a wild bramble stem!  fortunately she Won!  and the bramble got a good kicking afterwards   lol .   The same cannot be said about my experience!

After this episode, i was shooting some "location" shots with her camera for the blog when I got attacked!   the bramble was wrapped around both my feet, so had to call for HELP!  over came Gill, but instead of helping me, she just grabbed her camera and started shooting my predicament!   (you know who your friends are when you need help !   thanks Gill ! )  lol

I ended up on the ground, and heard the camera clicking away and lots of laughter!     fortunately, she was laughing so much most of the shots were out of focus and blured!    :) 

It was a good time i thought to teach her how to shoot with the mpe, and considering it is an extremely hard lens to use the resulting image is "exceptional"   well worth all the swearing,moaning and complaining i had to endure!!!      i did receive an apology later that night :) 
At first, using it on a tripod it is very difficult to get close enough to the hairstreak eggs, at x5 mag ,the focal distance is about 1.5 inch! especially with the flash diffuser next to the lens,  eventually she agreed to shoot handheld, and with MY help to hold the quite heavy, unbalanced camera and lens a few good shot where eventually taken!
 Gill was really unhappy at this point ,but i assured her that she had done really well for a first attempt with this lens , especially at its maximum magnification and the images were going to be quite good!    at this point we both didn't realise how good the finished 2 frame focus stack was going to be!!!!!
The resulting image was better than any i had taken this day , and is now on the west midlands butterfly conservation website, in the annual magazine and it is hopefully going to be printed on a reserve information board!!!!!!!!!
I TAUGHT HER WELL!!!!!!!!!!  she is so happy now! 

here is the brown hairstreak egg taken by Gillian Thompson  i am really proud of her accomplishment!

After all this , she agreed for me to take her portrait, this is the one i like best

"looking for eggs in the blackthorn! "

We both had a really great day, one to remember for a long time, and having been shown how to use the mpe, her next attempt at using it was accomplished with ease ,  but that is for a later blog!

All shots taken with canon 5d2, 500d,mpe-65,100mm L macro.