A visit to Incombe Hole in Buckinghamshire with my partner Kasia (acherontia96) late yesterday afternoon produced 5 Duke of Burgundies as well as Grizzled Skippers, a single Dingy Skipper, 10+ Green Hairstreaks and a couple of Speckled Woods. Nothing out of the ordinary except for one butterfly whic...

A trip to a site near Houghton Regis in Bedfordshire on July 9th provided me with my first Chalk-Hill Blues of the season, where I managed a few shots including the open wing male image below. Chalk-Hill Blue3FB.jpg Returning to the site on July 16th I was completely surrounded by males flying low a...

A visit to Yoesden Bank in Buckinghamshire on May 31st yielded high numbers of Adonis Blues including several copulating pairs. As I took hundreds of photos it's very hard to choose just one, so here's a small selection from a very enjoyable morning. Included is a very sorry looking individual who s...

For me this species had a really good year at the two sites I visited. They were plentiful at Denbies Hillside in Spring and again in Summer at Yoesden Bank. Adonis Blue30 UKB.jpg A first brood male - Denbies Hillside 20.05.2017. Adonis Blue31 UKB.jpg A first brood female - Denbies Hillside 20.05.20...

A holiday in Poland at the beginning of August provided me with my favourite Small Copper image of 2017. It was taken early in the morning in a meadow opposite the house we were staying in.

My favourite Small Heath photograph was taken on Denbies Hillside on May 18th. It's the first time I've managed to photograph a copulating pair.

Wow that's two years running, I'm over the moon. Thank you very much to the judges for choosing my Chalk-Hill Blue image as the overall winner, and congratulations to all the other winners.

Happy Birthday Pete, have a great day.

Thank you for the information John, most helpful.

I spent the second week of July in North East Spain and whilst there I visited the Parque Natural Montes Obarenes where I saw the following Fritillaries. They were all in the same spot at about 800m, about 2km east of the village of Villanueva de los Montes. The first three images are of very fresh ...

Thank you Guy and Roger for your valued input, most appreciated. I am thrilled that the first individual is considered belleri as this is a lifer for me. I am also pleased that my notion of carlinae for the second one was correct, it means I am actually learning something, with the help of Roger's e...

Myself and Ben have just returned from six days in the French Alps where we encountered 58 species plus a few we are unsure of including these two skippers. The first one was at photographed at around 1000m in the Mercantour National Park.. I was thinking Cirisi for this individual although the alti...

First brood males - Yoesden Bank - June 8th. Adonis Blue male3.jpg Adonis Blue male.jpg First brood females - Yoesden Bank - June 8th. Adonis Blue female.jpg Adonis Blue female2.jpg Second brood male - Aston Rowant - August 28th. Adonis Blue200.jpg Second brood male - Swells Hill. Adonis Blue.jpg

One of my favourite Chalkhill Blue images was of the very first male that I encountered at Aston Rowant NNR on 7th July. Another trip to the same site at the end of Julyyielded a couple of very nice abs that were roosting a few feet apart. Chalkhill Blue24.jpg Aston Rowant 07.07.2014. Chalkhiil Ab1 ...

I have two favourite Brown Argus images from this year and both were taken at Bishop's Hill in Warwickshire.
Bishop's Hill - 28.07.2014.

Bishop's Hill - 30.07.2014.

I have several favourite Adonis Blue images and all were taken at Pinfarthings near Stroud on three separate visits in August. The first image was taken on August 16th when myself and John Starkey found several copulating pairs on a warm sunny bank where females were emerging.I was very happy as thi...

Thank you to Pete and the team for choosing my image as the best in the Summer Competition. I have to say that I was (like many others it seems), a little surprised with First place. My personal favorite was Neil Hulme's male Adonis which I thought was absolutely stunning. On the strength of how goo...

Thanks very much for the confirmation Guy, that's a lifer for me that I didn't realize I had. Far too many files to sort through and these were somehow overlooked.

Thanks again.
Nigel.

I've been busy cleaning up some old hard drives as the weather has been so bad for the past couple of days and I came across this skipper photographed in Spain back in August 2012. I was wondering if it's a Cinquefoil Skipper (pyrgus cirisi) due to the joining of the two rectangular marks in s2 and ...

Hi David

It seems you have posted more wonderful images whilst I was writing my post.

We didn't see Titania's or Marbled Fritillaries, but saw plenty of False Heath and Weavers, as well as a strikingly marked female Spotted like yours.

Nigel.