I hardly ever see Small Coppers near me in Cambs, so I'm not sure I can say they've declined, but it's a shame they're so hard to find.

Just back from a great couple of weeks in Devon and Cornwall for a family holiday. This is the only Small Copper I've seen all year, rather sadly. This was near Sennen Cove / Land's End: http://www.pbase.com/dilettante/image/163888015/original.jpg A rather tatty Grayling, one of two or three seen. T...

I see Brown Hairstreaks have started to emerge ( http://butterfly-conservation.org/52/first-butterfly-sightings-2016.html ), a species I've never seen. I'm going to be in Devon (Exmouth) next week, so can anyone tell me if any of these sites are likely to yield a sighting for me? Or any other good s...

Looking at the prominence of the veins running through the white patch, isn't just an absence of scales rather than unpigmented scales? I think we've seen things like this where wings get stuck together in the pupa or during emergence e.g. http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=14&...

Thanks Phil. I can't do next weekend, but possibly the 23rd - hope it's still going then!

The annual question: Anyone know if PEs are out in numbers at Fermyn yet? Worth a trip on Saturday morning?

Saturday 2nd July 2016 Another trip to Royston Heath, Herts, more for a picnic and a walk than to look for butterflies. Despite a stiff breeze, there were a fair few Marbled Whites around, and Meadow Browns. No sign of Chalk-hill Blues yet though. This was the highlight, a single Dark Green Fritill...

Saturday 11th June 2016 Therfield Heath, Herts in overcast but warm conditions. Initially no butterflies to be seen at all - a sign of being in that quiet period between the Spring butterflies and the later Summer emergers. We soon found a few Small Heaths and a colony of Brown Argus, all rather bu...

Sunday 6th June 2016 Sunshine at last, after a miseraly cold, wet and windy week and an abandoned camping trip. After a cycle ride with my family in the morning, during which I saw 8 or more Painted Ladies, I went out on my own in the afternoon to a footpath between my village and one of its neighb...

I saw at least 8 Painted Ladies while out cycling today around CambsnEssex/Herts border. Part of a wider influx?

Thanks Wurzel. It's a Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge.

Out for a bike ride with my son, we were passing Over Cutting (Cambs) so I stopped to look for grizzlies. There was a gentleman there who said he'd been looking for an hour and not seen any, but almost as soon as he walked off, I spotted one basking. It allowed me to get close enough with my phone c...

Very nice - and a perfect specimen too!

Monday 2nd May 2016 A warmer but windy morning here in South Cambs. On a walk with my son, and no camera, I managed six species today: - Brimstone - Unidentifed white, probably Small - Comma - Small Tortoiseshell - Speckled Wood (first of the year) - Holly Blue (f.o.y.) The Holly Blue posed obligin...

It was a long time coming but my first butterfly of the year was a Brimstone on 25th March, then not much again until this weekend, with several Brimstones in the garden, and a Comma and Peacock seen round the village on Saturday. Also a possible Speckled Wood which I disturbed while out running, bu...

The hand-held stacked shot looks quite usable. So I'm wondering if this feature will be useful for butterflies to make it easier to get wingtips and body in focus while retaining some background bokeh.

The 'version 4' firmware added the capability to automatically 'stack' images in the camera, by taking a series of photos at a range of focus settings, in front of and behind the initial focus point. That's a really nice feature. Even if it didn't do the stack merging automatically, I've often thou...

Hi , I've just moved from film to digital and I have noticed that even at f/16 the depth of field on digital is not as sharp as the results I used to get on film. Even going down to f/20 , I am not convinced it gives a better DOF. In digital I use a Canon D1200 with a Sigma 150mm f/2.8 Macro lens w...

From what I've read (I'm no expert), it's far more likely to be a Goldcrest than a Firecrest, but the main distinguishing characteristics are around the eyes, so not visible in your picture. I had Goldcrests in my garden before Christmas and was pleased to get this photo (heavily cropped) http://www...

A female laying eggs on nettle, 4th July