Thanks for your comments Pauline, that Brimstone was difficult to capture a shot of without intervening twigs in the way. Luckily she stuck around for a few minutes which gave me the chance.
Yes, the cloudier weather can certainly help Wurzel. The thing with emergence times is not only the way they vary from year to year but also between different sites, even within the same area.
Same here David with the Longhorn Moths, I nearly always see them when looking for Green Hairstreaks.
Hi Dave, I know the places you mean but Green Hairstreaks can crop up almost anywhere round the site these days although I believe the 'hotspot' is still the hedge on the side nearest the police college.
Thanks Andrew, that GVW is the only one I have managed to photograph so far this year.
Sunday 28th April.
Since last Wednesday the weather here deteriorated until Saturday which was a real shocker of a day with rain and high winds and even some hail at one point in the afternoon.
Sunday was a lot calmer and although the morning was dull and dreary, the sun eventually came through a bit later in the afternoon. This was enough to get the Specklies up and about and I eventually spotted four different males and a female plus a single Holly Blue that passed though during one sunny spell.
The photos posted in my last few reports have all being taken with the Nikon D3400 fitted with a Nikon 70-300 lens. With the D3400 being a crop sensor camera this effectively gives the equivalent of a 105-450 lens on a full frame camera and I am finding that I like this as a walk around setup as it gives me a good working distance for when butterflies are fairly active, which is most of the time when I can get out.
I had been thinking about treating myself to another lens, mostly for taking photos of moths from my trap, especially the smaller ones which my Lumix FZ200 struggles with, but also to use on other occasions when I could get closer to the subject.
After a bit of research I settled on a Sigma 105 macro lens which duly arrived on Saturday, just in time to give it a go in the garden with the better weather on Sunday.
![Coverdale 28.04.2019 495 resize.JPG (558.38 KiB) Viewed 3257 times Speckled Wood - Coverdale 28.04.2019](./files/thumb_10101_5719754d5be95ee6d9a22d5702dcd612)
- Speckled Wood - Coverdale 28.04.2019
![Coverdale 28.04.2019 590 resize.JPG (540.93 KiB) Viewed 3257 times Speckled Wood - Coverdale 28.04.2019](./files/thumb_10101_b2321ac5edf7753e6b604d5b7221000f)
- Speckled Wood - Coverdale 28.04.2019
The cooler spells allowed me to get nice and close, I have seen photos of butterflies with hairy eyes before but this is the first time I have captured it myself.
![Coverdale 28.04.2019 542 resize.JPG (538.99 KiB) Viewed 3257 times Speckled Wood - Coverdale 28.04.2019](./files/thumb_10101_8214e52c413deab17b254b42edbe5e2b)
- Speckled Wood - Coverdale 28.04.2019
With the grotty weather during the back end of last week I hadn't bothered running the moth trap but with the wind dropping I decided to give it a go on Sunday night. As it happened, the skies cleared overnight and turned cold which led to just 4 moths, singles of Shuttle-shaped Dart, Double-striped Pug, Light Brown Apple Moth and best of all a Chocolate-tip, just a bit too late for Easter
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
. This was only the 4th example of this species I have had to my garden trap since I started running it in 2016 ( 2 in 2016, 1 in 2017 and none last year)
![Coverdale 28.04.2019 059 resize.JPG (654.86 KiB) Viewed 3257 times Chocolate-tip - Coverdale 28.04.2019](./files/thumb_10101_28a8deac4991a94bd59813f813916441)
- Chocolate-tip - Coverdale 28.04.2019
With stunning inevitability it was a better day today whilst I was back at work and the rest of the week doesn't look too bad either, oh well!
Bye for now,
Neil.