Brown hawker has been a nemesis of mine for several years. I spent weeks of frustrating effort by the riverbank chasing this most skittish of dragonflies through the summer of 2005, finally to catch a single female in 2006. Now, three years later Jerry and I both snapped this male today at Priddy Mi...

Hi Gruditch, I noticed she had clouted her Deely Bopper - most infuriating! :evil: It's a real shame that these things go through such a complex and lengthy life-cycle, only to get ripped and torn so soon after emergence. I often shout at them "be careful!" - but they never listen :lol: N...

Nice catches, Gary and Lisa. Did you get them at Shipton Bellinger?

Great catch, Malcolm, and nice tandem pic too.
@Zonda, common darter female it is.

Zonda wrote:It's a 'damsel in distress' scenario. He's trying to save her life.

"He" is a "she" actually, but it's curious what the butterfly is up to. I don't think females instigate mating preliminaries. Mistaken nectar source perhaps?

Thanks Neil.
@Sooty, the tree is just out of the picture.

Alner's Gorse is supposedly highly rated for BH. It's part of a complex of reserves which also includes Lydlinch Common, but I went there last year and found none. Last year's weather was pretty horrible though. Check out the main UKB sites pages: http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/sites_ngcode.php?ngco...

Ok .... The first one needs a severe crop, or deleting(preferably) A severe crop is what Jerry did. And Gary is right - it would perhaps need deleting if he hadn't used the equipment that he did, namely a high MP full frame camera and OEM macro lens. Such a combo can take an awful lot of cropping a...

There are several known sites along the East Polden reserves including Gilling Down, Collard Hill, and as already mentioned, Walton Hill. I went with Xmilehigh to Gilling Down and Walton Hill about a week and a half ago and saw nothing. It's possible that we got there at the wrong time but I've been...

An interesting topic.
Although there is a slight not-quite-right feel to it, the painted lady shot works quite well for me. I don't like the wood white very much but this has little to do with the digital 'gardening' but more to do with the use of flash in the first place.

Male commas are very aggressive when requiring to mate, staking out territory and basking for long periods only to rise when an interloper arrives. The behaviour seems more acute in the spring, perhaps because after a long winter hibernation the impetus to mate is higher. The tresspassing species ca...

My theory is that CB female colouration is, in part, weather related: Being lighter and more reflective, blue females may need to sit higher in foliage in order to get enough sunshine to reach optimum temperature. This makes them more visible. Males habitually chase other males away, so the blue col...

Macro focal length is always a bit of a conundrum. Do you go for short/medium focal length to enable you to get in close - useful where there's lots of grass in front of a small butterfly such as a skipper - or a longer one where you can keep back and avoid spooking the insect. Probably the most pop...

A visit today with Denise, Xmilehigh, and our driver of the day, Wavelea1 (many thanks Mike!) to Shipton Bellinger saw several brown hairstreak but none would come down from the treetops. The best I could do was point a long lens at it. This is a 100% crop. DSC00913.jpg From there, a visit to Brough...

You may be right about the moths/skippers as lulworths are small, much smaller than I thought they would be, and in flight they look quite dull brown and moth/like. The moth species I saw most of there was silver 'y', literally hundreds of them.

It's probably not used very much with butterflies Lisa & Myself, use it all the time. :wink: Gruditch OK, it's probably not used very much with butterflies if you're me, but it is if you are Gary or Lisa. :lol: I found my Jessops monopod on ebay when an enterprising seller bought up liquidated ...

That's a coincidence! Jerry (Xmilehigh) and myself have just got back from there. It's a cracking site, although a real pain to get to from Bristol. I saw: Adonis blue Lulworth skipper Small skipper Wall Common blue Gatekeeper Meadow Brown Marbled white Painted lady Small tortoiseshell Brown argus J...

Hi Vawn. Have a look at the "sightings" threads. There's one all about this year's mass painted lady influx.

is Hi Speed shooting the same as the continous 9 frame burst the Canon will do? Yes, I think so. It's probably not used very much with butterflies although it could be useful if you're trying to capture one in flight. It's used a lot in fast sports and birds in flight. On monopods, give the Jessops...

Approach slowly. If that fails try again more slowly! Turn the camera on before you get too close. The sudden 'whirr' of a lens cycling through autofocus or popping out from the camera can send some butterflies off. Avoid casting your shadow on the butterfly. Even if that doesn't spook it, it'll fly...