www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Thank you, Wurzel - I was very pleased to get a reasonably close sighting of these elusive birds.

Just seen the first Holly Blue in my garden, as well as both male and female Brimstones passing through.

Mike

Hi! Mike, still to capture a Brimstone on camera, I saw them at Gaits Barrow last week but they didn't stop long enough for shots.
I've never seen a Ring Ouzel, I've never heard of them before I'm sorry to say I'll get my bird book out and read up on them now, Goldie

Goldie M wrote: I've never seen a Ring Ouzel,

You live in the right part of the country for them! They are summer visitors to the fells and high moors. I often used to see them when walking in the Lake District. They are rather like hoarse-voiced Blackbirds

I didn't know that Mike I'll keep a look out now Goldie

I seem to have dropped behind the curve a little, this year, judging by all the species reports in the April sightings thread.

In my garden, Brimstones have been passing through regularly, as well as Peacocks and a few Whites. I keep seeing Holly Blues, when looking out through the windows, but they have a trick of disappearing whenever I go outside, so I've only managed a few 'record' shots. I was pleased to see a Speckled Wood that had found a good vantage point, overlooking my garden pond. It made frequent sallies after passing insects but kept returning to the same location.
I paid a visit to Aston Rowant NNR on 24th April but saw very few butterflies, although I was fortunate to spot this Green Hairstreak, egg-laying on the slope. She was moving rapidly from one location to another and I took several shots with my 300mm lens before attempting to move closer for a macro shot. Unfortunately, I moved a little too quickly and she zoomed away out of view.
We now seem to be entering a spell of cooler, wetter weather, so it may be a few days before I go back to the Downs, to look for Dingy and Grizzled Skippers.

Mike

An egglaying Greenstreak Times running out and I'm still knocking plaster off the walls ahhhhhh!
Great shot by the way

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Thanks Wurzel. I had thought my visit was going to draw a complete blank until I saw the Green H moving over the slope. I hadn't realised what she was doing until I looked at the photos!

Can anyone identify the plant? I gather that Green H has the widest range of foodplants of any British species.

Great work, Mike! I don't think I've observed an egg-laying green hairstreak before.

Guy

Me neither. I've often seen them alight on the plant in question but I haven't seen any actively laying before.

Wurzel wrote:An egglaying Greenstreak Times running out and I'm still knocking plaster off the walls ahhhhhh!
Great shot by the way

I know what you mean, Wurzel! I''ve been in south-east Asia this past week and next (Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia) ... and am missing home tremendously. At least some Plain Tiger larvae have dulled the pain!

Cheers,

- Pete

Hi Mike, I think the LHP in this case is Common Rock Rose.

Vince

Thanks, Vince - that would have been my guess but, while familiar enough with the flowers, I wasn't so sure of the leaves and my books weren't very helpful.

Mike

How on earth did I miss that smashing shot of the Ring Ouzel Mike?! I must pay more attention. I have yet to see one although I have tried. That's a great shot of the egg laying GH too. I have a few shots of them laying on various plants but not as clear as yours- something to aspire to

Thank you Pauline. It's very easy to miss things, once they've scrolled off the front page list on this site. I shall let you off from writing 'I must pay more attention' 100 times

The 300mm lens on my Nikon is excellent for capturing these events, without having to approach too closely. As I mentioned in my original post, I failed with the macro lens because I inadvertently disturbed her - something I dislike doing.

At first, I felt it was 'cheating' to use a long tele lens but I've noticed that many of the shots taken on bridge cameras are taken towards the long end of the zoom. There's a lot to be said for standing back a bit, to avoid disturbing the butterfly, though it's not always possible, especially when vegetation gets in the way.

Mike

Almost exactly a year ago, I wrote in this diary that I had bought a Lumix FZ200 camera as a lightweight companion to my hefty Nikon DSLR. There is no doubt that the FZ-series are excellent cameras, as evidenced by the many photos made using them that appear on this site, but the laws of physics set limits on what the small sensor can achieve. On the other hand, the electronic viewfinder demonstrated to me how a digital camera can dispense with the bulky and heavy mechanism associated with the mirror box of a DSLR.

So, I am now starting out on a new trial, with a mirror-less camera in the shape of an Olympus OM-D E-M5. I chose this model, not just for its small size and low weight but also for its ruggedised weather-proof construction, which is important for some of my other, non-butterfly, photographic activities.

A very significant difference is that the OM-D sensor has an area of 225 sq.mm, against only 28 sq.mm for the FZ200. The Olympus sensor even out-performs that in my ageing Nikon D300s, thanks to advances in technology , according to DxOmark tests: see http://www.dxomark.com/Cameras/Compare/ ... 614#tabs-1

I've read several excellent reviews of the Olympus, so am hoping it will live up to my expectations. I bought mine as a kit with three lenses, which altogether weigh about 1kg, against 7.1 kg for my Nikon kit. Perhaps a photo is the best way to show the dramatic difference in size between the two cameras!
After a couple of days of initial familiarisation - and this is a rather complex camera, with almost every aspect of its operation 'customisable' through menu functions - I took it, yesterday (April 29th) on my first trip, with a hope of seeing butterflies, to the 'Juniper Valley that I've mentioned in earlier diary entries.

On the 'walk in' I saw my first Orange Tip of this year as he hurried past me along the path in relentless search for females! I was disappointed not to find any 'dingies' or 'grizzlies' in their favourite spots but my wife's sharp eyes spotted a Green Hairstreak for me to get some practice with the OM-D.

I used the 40-150 lens (80-300, 35mm equivalent), so that I could 'keep my distance,' and took a collection of shots as it moved from one flower head to another. One feature on the camera that I liked was the easy access to the exposure compensation function, with direct viewing of its effect in the electronic finder. This allowed me to compensate for the brilliant iridescence of the wings as they shone in the bright sunshine.
There were also several Pyralid moths flying, so I took this shot of Pyrausta nigrata with the Olympus
While walking back to the car, I saw a rather battered Green-veined White. By then, I was using my Nikon, as I had been photographing some birds in flight, but I show this shot to demonstrate the advantages of spot metering, when photographing white butterflies. The indicated exposure in 'matrix' mode was 1/1000s @ f/8, whereas the spot meter, trained on the butterfly, indicated 1/3000 @ f/9.5, which has kept the detail in the wing veins.
I have a lot to learn about the OM-D but my first impressions are that it can do an excellent job at a fraction of the weight and size of the Nikon.

Mike

Delighted to see that you have joined the mirrorless brigade. These little Olympus cameras are real gems. I look forward to seeing more of your results. I cannot recommend too highly the Olympus 60mm Macro (35mm equivalent 120 mm). I would have preferred a slightly longer focal length, but I have had good results with it. Check out my Flickr photostream for insect and reptile photos taken from May 2013 onwards with this lens on an EM-5 and later an EM-1, which is even nicer.

M.

Thank you Mikhail. Since taking those shots, I've been trying my 90mm Tamron macro on the OM-D and first results, on flowers in the garden, look excellent. It's great being able to attach lenses via a Micro4/3 adapter and, for macro, I use manual focus anyway. I suspect that the 5-axis stabilisation helps as well.

The E-M1 does look attractive for the phase-detect AF but reports seem to suggest that this facility needs 4/3 rather than Micro4/3 lenses. Have you done bird-in-flight photos?

Mike

No, I haven't tried birds in flight. I always used to manually focus in close-up photography, but now at nearly 79 and with early stage cataracts, I find it preferable to auto focus. I find the contrast detect auto focus in these cameras to be very fast and unfailingly accurate, and with the help of the excellent image stabilisation, my success rate has increased over what I could achieve with a conventional DSLR.

M.

Hi Mike,

I followed your experiences with the FZ200 with interest as I was going to replace my battered FZ150 with one last year. In the end I carried on with the 150 for the rest of the season and have just recently bought the FZ200.

MikeOxon wrote: ...At first, I felt it was 'cheating' to use a long tele lens but I've noticed that many of the shots taken on bridge cameras are taken towards the long end of the zoom. There's a lot to be said for standing back a bit, to avoid disturbing the butterfly, though it's not always possible, especially when vegetation gets in the way...

For a number of reasons most of my butterflying is done during the afternoon and I take most of my photos using the long end of the zoom range for the simple reason that getting closer can be difficult when the butterflies are usually at their most active at this time. It reduces the frustration levels somewhat

Looking forward to reading your experience with your new Olympus.

Cheers,

Neil

Thank you Neil. I saw your comment in Pauline's diary about the differences in using the FZ200. I hope that you get to grips with it soon. I feel sure that you will appreciate the 'faster' lens but do take care over depth of field, when taking advantage of the wide aperture at the tele end!

The Olympus represents a much bigger change but I have been getting some excellent results on flowers in the garden, when using it with my Tamron 90mm macro. As in the case of my Nikon, I can see that the images will benefit from 'RAW' processing, but the Olympus software seems rather slow, when processing RAW images I used to use the brilliant Pixmantec Rawshooter software, which is fast and very intuitive, when working with my Nikon images, but it cannot 'read' those from the Olympus. I shall give the new 'Lightroom 6' a trial - yet another learning curve
Mike