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

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 Butterfly adventures 2011 June 20 - 3rd July

The end of June & July was the start of an amazing period of butterfly sightings, travelling hundreds of miles from Cheshire up to the lake district and down to warwickshire and Worcestershire in search of species i had never seen.
Starting off with my first ever trip to Arnside knott in cumbria on 20/6/11  my first ever sighting of a dark green fritillary :)

                a magnificent species!     i then shot my first Northern brown Argus ,a tiny butterfly!   lol

Next on the species list to be found on this incredible day was the Grayling , i have seen them plenty of times but never managed a shot.  they where all over the steep shale slopes basking in the sun!   lol

 

Another new species - the Small pearl bordered fritillary was next on this eventful day :)

 

I then travelled up to the lakes and into Borrowdale searching for dragonflies, and shot this beautiful Dark green fritillary!

The following weekend i was back at Arnside to hopefully see the High brown fritillary.

here is a newly emerged specimen!

and as a comparison a Dark green fritillary

and a Small pearl bordered fritillary

What a wonderful place to visit on a summers day!!! 

The next weekend trip was July 3rd , the Warwickshire butterfly conservation Trip to Oversley wood to hopefully see the elusive Purple Emperors !

I got there early after a 2 hour drive!    and after just 10 minutes i saw my first ever White admiral, then my first Marbled white and small skipper !   Amazing!

They are stunning!

and a small skipper/marbled shot :)

I then met up with the group on the hunt for the Emperors, very soon afterwards we found Silver washed fritillarys

    This is when Gill arrived, late as usual !   just in time to shoot

  a newly emerged Purple hairstreak ! a very rare sight

The Purple Emperors did not show themselves, so all the group split up and went separate ways around the forest!

almost immediately i found one on the path in front of me! Wow!   it flew around a bit then landed so i could get the shots i wanted!

 

After this amazing morning, i spent the whole afternoon with Gill watching Purple Emperors flying around the tree tops in the congregation area pines ! which may seem strange, but was actually one of my best memories of 2011! 

 and watching newly emerged Red Admirals in the woods!

 what an super end to a simply fantastic day!

all images taken with canon 5d2, 100mm L macro lens.