Nick Broomer

[Mark Colvin]

Hi Nick.

A beautiful and well deserved image. They don't come fresher than that ...

Great work

Kindest regards. Mark

[Nick Broomer]

Thank you Mike and Mark for your kind comments, it certainly was worth the wait.

Mike i hope you get lucky.

All the best, Nick.

[Nick Broomer]

July 20th

Sat. morning i decided to visit my local patch to see the PE one last time, where i bumped into Susie who was also hoping to see and photograph the same butterfly. By 9.15am i had found one, eleven days after photographing my first PE of the season i was about to get my last photo. Letting Susie take all the photos she wanted first, i then took a couple of record shots to add to my memories of a great season i have had with this butterfly in these woods this year.

20.7.2013 CW 008-2_1.jpg

[millerd]

I have just seen the wonderful Emperor photo on the previous page of your diary. What a magnificent creature - congratulations on capturing its beauty for us all.

Dave

[Susie]

Beautiful photo , Nick. Thank you again for your kindness.

[Nick Broomer]

Thank you for your kind comments Dave and Susie, greatly appreciated. Its been a very long wait in capturing this particular shot of a PE, but one i will never forget.

Susie, it was a pleasure.

All the best, Nick.

[Nick Broomer]

July 20th continued.

After Susie had left to go home, i had a quick look around before heading home myself, so i could look after my sons eight week old puppy. I did`nt feel it right to leave her all alone for too long as we had just got her a couple of days earlier, and the rest of the family were out. The first butterfly i came across was this Comma which was to high to photograph,

20.7.2013 CW 061-1_1.jpg

so out came my newly acquired stilts, and i still was`nt high enough, and could`nt get over the top of the butterfly to achieve the shot i required, [will have to get some extensions] As i got closer to the car i thought i would try and get some photos of something closer to the ground [forget the stilts] and, chose these female Small Skippers as my last subjects before getting into the car and, heading home for a spot of puppy sittting.

20.7.2013 CW 046-1_2.jpg

20.7.2013 CW 076-1_1.jpg

[Wurzel]

Stilts or no stilts they're still great shots Nick Do you have knee pads for the low shots?

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Nick Broomer]

Thank you for your kind comment Wurzel. As for the knee-pads, i was on full tip-toes for the lower shots.

All the best,Nick.

[Nick Broomer]

At lunch breaks from work i usually take a walk, taking the same route pass a common, then down onto the Downs Link, across a play area which leads to the road where i live. Most of the butterflies i encounter at this time of year, [or at least this year] are Small Tortoiseshell, Comma, Small and Large Whites plus Meadow Browns, the odd gatekeeper, Green-veined White, Speckled Wood, Ringlet, Small and Large Skippers and, if i`m really lucky a Peacock and maybe a Red Admiral. On this particular day i saw a male Marbled White on the common, [which is a first for this area] just before i cut down onto the Downs Link, where there were a couple of Commas floating about, as there are nettles all along here, i stopped to watch the two Commas as i always do, nothing normally comes of this, but today was different. One of the Commas was a female and, she instantly flew down on to a nettle and oviposited, laying just the one egg before flying off, but, not on the edge of a nettle leaf which is the norm, but on, a cluster of female flowers hanging down from the Nettle stem, [right on the bottom one]. I have looked for a reference of this behaviour, laying eggs on the flowers of Nettles, and found none, so whether this is common practise or not i have no idea.

23.7.2013 Comma egg 045-2_1_1.jpg

23.7.2013 Comma egg 023-6_1.jpg

[Vince Massimo]

Hi Nick,

I've not see or heard of such behaviour. It's very odd indeed.
Could you add the close-up image to the Species-Specific Album please.

Regards,

Vince

[Pete Eeles]

Great observation Nick! Thx for reporting.

Cheers,

- Pete

[Nick Broomer]

Sat. July 27th.

On my way home from work at lunch time, taking the same route as always i watched another female Comma ovipositing, this time the egg being placed in the correct spot, on the edge of a Nettle leaf.

28.7.2013 Comma egg on Nettle leaf, Surrey 006.jpg

[Neil Freeman]

Excellent images of Comma eggs Nick.

I have seen a couple of female Commas ovipositing recently but too deep in beds of nettles to find any eggs.

Cheers,

Neil F.

[Wurzel]

Brill shot Nick - what lens do you use as when I try for eggs I just can't seem to get close enough?

Cheers as well as your shots saved me from great embarassment - I was watching a Comma flutter around from leaf to leaf, bending it's abdomen around so I thought it was ovipositing. I took some photos of something but when I compared them to your detailed shots I realised that they weren't eggs - probably just grains of dirt Got away with that cheers

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Nick Broomer]

Thank you for your comments Neil, appreciated. I was very fortunate that both Commas i witnessed ovipositing were on the side of a path or track, the first one was on a mature Nettle right in the open just underneath a bridge, the second was on a small Nettle below some Bramble, right on the edge of the path, so both very easy to find. I hope you have better luck next time.

All the best, Nick.

[Nick Broomer]

Thank you for your comments Wurzel, appreciated. The lens i always use to photograph butterflies or their eggs is the same one, a sigma 150 macro. for the two eggs i photographed i used the macro switch on the lens, as all i wanted was a pretty decent image of the egg. If i want more of the foliage plus the egg in focus i just use the lens as if i were taking pictures of butterflies, but slightly closer. But this is easier said than done, it normally takes a lot of patience, a couple of hundred attempts and, a lot of b..... swearing, especially when its as windy as it has been the last few days, making it a nightmare to photograph something so small. [My wife is going to buy me some close-up tubes, so hopefully will make photographing small objects a lot easier] As for finding the eggs after the butterfly leaves, in this case the Comma`s egg, i look for a very small bright white spot on the edge of the leaf, [which has`nt failed me yet] the white spot being the light`s reflection on the egg, making it easier to find. I hope some of that helps.

All the best, Nick.

[Wurzel]

Cheers for the info Nick I'll have a go now I know whatI'm looking with my 105 lens. I 'm thinking about buying some extension tubes to give me a further working distance. Keep up the excellent work

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Nick Broomer]

These two pictures are a follow-up to the Comma`s ovum i found on Sat. 27th July and photographed. This is how it looks after three days.

30.7.2013 Comma egg after 3 days, Surrey 041.jpg

30.7.2013 Comma egg after 3 days, Surrey 040.jpg

[Mark Colvin]

Hi Nick.

Super work. I particularly like the first of your latest two images and look forward to future instalments

Good hunting.

Kindest regards. Mark