Proving the Brostreak open-wing phenomenon early-morning is no fluke. I was at Noar Hill today for only 30 minutes at the Brostreak location that was so good to me yesterday and sure enough between 8 am and 8.15 am (a short window when it was both sunny and warm enough) they were up and about, baski...

Trevor, thanks for the 10 points. I think I may have accumulated 30 points in total from you now over this year.
I think the trick to see them with wings open is to get to site early. Around 8 am seems to do it.

Trevor I just read your post on my PD about my Brostreaks and then I look at your PD and see this happening to yours. I am so sorry. I just hope the Brostreaks manage to survive nearby and repopulate once it all grows back again. Noar Hill suffered similar damage by mismanagement a few years back an...

Dave Good you could make it down to my neck of the woods. Noar Hill can be wonderful at this time of year. I have been looking for a Clouded Yellow here but been unsuccessful this year so far, but you got lucky. :mrgreen: You even got the Dingy too. I once in a previous year saw a second brood Duke ...

Yesterday at Noar Hill I saw 20 species in 1 1/2 hours but by 10am it was 30 degrees and it got the better of me, so I went home. Many species were very energetic and rarely stood still for long anyway. However did get a nice Holly Blue female with its wings open. P1140639.JPG Today I got to Noar Hi...

Wurzel - Yes, your right. I might start calling them Bargies!

More fun with Chalkhills and BArgs today.
My quest for the ultimate backlit shot of one continues.
A courting pair of BArgs?
No - he got the brush off in the end!

Seeing other people have got fantastic shots of the Brown Hairstreak at Shipton and Noar Hill, I decided to try my luck today. Unfortunately I had to wait in for a delivery so got to Noar Hill a bit late. Still, I found two males and got a distant shot of one perched. My first shot of the year. P114...

Wurzel - I think the main reason I get so many pics of butterflies with the butterfly actually absent is because I take liberties with them. I often set my camera to its super-macro close-up setting and creep up until I am only a few centimeters away!!! Invariably they clock me and do a flit. David ...

I am thinking of starting a photo gallery of images of where a butterfly was a split second before I take a picture but in that moment decides to fly off! Today at Magdalen Hill I lost count how many times that happened. For example... P1140473.JPG Yep - that would have been a fantastic shot of a Ch...

Good luck, Trevor. My wife and I saw it last night. Its great through bins and imagine even better through a scope.

Oh - don't forget - never look directly at the sun, especially not with bins, not even as its sets.

For those of you who do not know but who have an interest, Comet Neowise is nearing its closest approach to Earth right now. It can be found in the North-western sky. When it gets dark enough (around 11.30 pm where I live ' cos I live in a town) it is a naked-eye object, a fuzzy core with a hugely l...

I counted 49 Peacocks at Noar Hill today and I only visited half the reserve. Also R Ad, L, S, GV and M White, S, L and E Skipper, SW and DG Frits (4 of the latter), S Heath, C Blue, poss S Blue (2nd brood) and another 2nd brood Dingy, bringing my total for this species this week to 3. P1140419.JPG ...

Allan - Nice to hear you have 2nd brood Dingies round your way too. I have yet to see a Chalkhill this year but then I have not yet visited my usual haunts for them yet.

Dave - And today I thought I saw a 2nd brood Small Blue too, but it was fleeting so no pics I am afraid.

Three Chalkhills on a single stalk. Nice one.

I've got a book on butterflies published only 10 years ago in 2010. In this book it tells me that the usual flight period for the Dingy Skipper is from mid-May to end-June and then a possible second brood sometimes for a short period in the middle of August. So why is it I saw two of them today at N...

David - Yet again another butterfly that seems to have started flying slightly earlier this year. Wurzel - What an Eagle-eye for detail you have. I never even noticed the flattened wing-spot. Maybe an ab but since it is very fresh the wings still appear to have that "concertina" effect whi...

Hurrah, the Grayling are back at Folly Hill. 5 seen today, 4 of which were in the lek area and all of them fresh.