Can't find an all black, tailed swallowtail that flies in the region. Sorry! They all have varying amounts of white, red or blue on the hindwing. Maybe someone else who knows the region might have an idea... Guy It's quite possible that it might have had some colour on its underside - we only reall...

I use the same camera and find the macro mode almost never misses a focus. You need to set the auto focus to central, rather than intelligent, and just make sure the object you want to focus on is in the middle of the viewfinder. Guy Thanks Guy, I had tried that briefly but got better results with ...

I've discovered using my compact (Canon Powershot A720 IS) that using the manual focus mode, while slightly hit or miss, gives much better results (when you get it right) than the macro mode does - it has a nasty habit of focussing on entirely the wrong things.
J

A Common Peacock - apologies for the blurriness, but these guys just won't sit still, preferring to hover over their drinks. The other days we also saw an equally large one of similar shape, but entirely black - can't find a matching pic anywhere - any ideas? IMG_2694.jpg My favourite so far: a pain...