www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Steve (SteveA)

Those Brown Argus shots are superb and well worth sharing with us. The definition and the accurate exposure is really impressive.
I have just looked at your gallery for the first time. Excellent pictures with consistently superb resolution. Not many match your standards.

Camera details please.

Jack

According to the Dorset website - a Scarce Swallowtail has been seen! (see http://www.dorsetbutterflies.com/sightings.php). Anyone know anything about this?

Cheers,

- Pete

Can Scarce swallowtails be found as rare migrants? What kinda weather would it take for that to happen?

Anyway a few photos from today as said in my earlier post:

First the bog:

Male Common Blue: A bif off, but a painted lady almost all in shot (this one one we mistook for a DG fritillary as it was flying) Possibly a last adult from migrants: Meadow Brown: A six spot burnet caught by Ian Rippy from BCNI. We were looking for narrow-borderd five spot burnets, but all we found was either one or two six spot burnets: Ian put a Phaeromone trap in two place to see if any red tipped clearings were there, but we did not find any: Still sorting over 500 photos, so I'll post a few more soon. I was also given two different moth traps to use for a while, so going to set one up tonight and see what it brings.

Was on the North Downs above Kemsing in Kent today. 15-20 years ago you could see Chalk Hill Blues there in abundance but found none today. However, quite a lot of the downland was over grown or in the process of becoming overgrown, or maybe I was just too early. Did see:
Red Admiral
Comma x 25
Essex Skipper
Ringlet x 75
Meadow Brown x 50
Speckled Wood x 15
Gatekeeper x 10
Large White x 15
Green Veined White x 15
Silver Y x 2
Lots of Burnets

Probable the most happy I've been with some photos for a while too (must get a new camera....):

Hi all,

Looking at posts. Realised hardly any reference to HBF's this year!?

Was at Arnside knot and Gait barrows last weekend, best trip ever for High Browns, barely any dark green frits by comparison, and the numbers of female HBs at both locations seemed to outstrip the males 2:1, which can only be a good thing! Heres hoping for greater and greater numbers each year....fingers crossed.

Aron

Heddon Valley did not disappoint for HBF... and DGF too... as well as ST.... and a pair of mating SWF N

(quote] Those Brown Argus shots are superb and well worth sharing with us. The definition and the accurate exposure is really impressive.
I have just looked at your gallery for the first time. Excellent pictures with consistently superb resolution. Not many match your standards.

Camera details please.
JackHarr

I use a Canon 1D MKIII professional camera body with a Sigma 70-300mm macro with extension tubes, I also use the Canon 100-400 IS lens for those butterflies that would otherwise be out of reach but I don't use it that often.

The 1D MKIII was primarily used for Bird photography where a canon 500mm prime lens is the main lens. Many butterfly and bird photos using this camera body can be seen on my website www.birdersplayground.co.uk.

The camera body though has been superb for butterflies as it has an exellent ISO range with little noise upto ISO800, higher ISO's I use a noise reduction software which basically removes all that annoying grain leaving a clear crisp image. It is rather heavy and bulky for butterflies but the images are just excellent.

The Sigma lens is not the best by any means, I have more throw aways than I should have but amongst those can be some very nice images, this years personal favourites are the Marsh and Heath Fritillaries where the underwings are shown with great depth of field. The use of an extension tube means I can get a lot closer to the subject than using the lens on its own. I really would like a better 1:1 macro lens, probably the Sigma 180mm.

I tend to shoot with an F stop somewhere between F11 and F16 which gives a good depth of field whilst not having to much of a distracting background. This sometimes means an ISO of around 500 or 640, though the Brown Argus was at ISO800. All shots are hand held, without tripod or monopod.

Steve A

A trip to Bentley Wood by Xmilehigh and myself produced one very shy purple emperor with the frequent showers keeping them high in the treetops. Lots of SWF and a few WA helped alleviate PE withdrawal.

We also spent an hour on Stockbridge Down to check on Pete's chalkhill numbers. Yep, plenty of butterflies there despite the cloudy conditions: marbled white, brimstone, small white, large white, small copper, common blue, chalkhill blue, meadow brown, ringlet, gatekeeper, small skipper and (I think - photo to be checked) essex skipper.

A stop off back at Bentley Wood produced another fleeting glimpse of PE. In both sites were lots of fresh looking painted ladies. An especially spectacular display of PL and SWF was in the meadow immediately east of the car park.

Hi all,

I haven't posted any sightings for a while and so I thought I'd share some of my recent photos with you:

30th June 2009, Littlehampton Bridge, Sussex:
Meadow Browns, Large Skippers, Large Whites, Commas and a few Painted Ladies including this rather worn individual. 5th July 2009, Austrey Meadows, Warkwickshire:
Lots and lots of Meadow Browns, in fact I doubt I have seen so many before. 9th July 2009, Meathop Moss, Cumbria:
I was in the area caving this week and so took a day off to visit this area and the Morecambe bay limestones. Lots of fun! At Meathop I saw about 30 Large Heaths which is a new species to me, Manchester Treble Bar and a good variety of bog flora including: Crowberry, Cranberry, (lots of) Bog Asphodel and Bog Rosemary. 9th July 2009, Arnside Knott, Cumbria:
I moved on to Arnside next which is easily accessible from Grange-Over Sands etc by train. More fun was had here and the number of High Brown Fritillaries I experienced here was fantastic... many more than I've seen on Dartmoor but without the satisfaction of finding exactly where they live by yourself. I also saw a few Dark Green Fritillaries and lots of Grayling on two separate parts of the Knott amongst more common species. I was surprised to get a shot of the upperside of a Grayling as (she?) flicked her wings presumably at a hopeful male. Definately a day to remember Alexander

All photos taken with a borrowed Canon 450D apart from the PL and MBs which were with an Acer CI-6330. The 450D incidently did not feel as well built as a 350D.

sandra and i went 2 smardale gill today

Saw our 1st ever scotch argus, also saw ringlet & meadow brown mating each other, very strange!

Kevin

One red admiral in my garden today, did not sit long for photo and when one did, I was too far away to get a shot:

Good sighting of 3 Clouded Yellows yesterday 13th July at Ouse Estuary NR Newhaven , 2 males 1 uncertain .
The Upper Thames site mentions a record of Marbled Fritillary in Finemere Wood Bucks . This appears to be the 2nd year running for this species in this location .

Two brown hairstreaks today.

Lucky you Susie, here its cool and windy with a threat of rain but the field has still got a good number of Meadow Brown and Ringlets. I found a Green-veined White amongst the Gypsophilia and that about it so far to-day. I've discovered with this Sony camera its possible to take Raw and jpg together which when transfering the photos they come onto the pc together, two separate photos which are the same so to speak, the only trouble with that is the hard drive is nearly full. Shirley

Saw this moth today, very nice as its green metellic sheen was shining in sun, a Burnished Brass, never seen it before today:



Also saw a swallow-tail moth and a red admiral in my garden again as well as 7 green veined whites and 3 meadow browns

Shirley, raw images give so much more flexibility that I think the extra space taken is well worth it. You do need to weed out the shots that didn't work out, and with butterflies there will be many. I archive my keepers to DVD but an external USB hard drive can also be useful for extra space. I got a 500 gig one for about £50 last year.

That's a delightful little moth, Dave.

Four of these chaps emerged today in the end.

Here's one fresh out of his case, his wings are still a bit creased.



The colours of these creatures when they are fresh are amazing, deep gold and red. Whom ever named them "brown" needs shooting. They're the colour of flames.

I so want to see and photograph one this year, you lucky thing.

Denise

Shirley

Most people find that when photographing whites, deliberate underexposure by 2/3 or 1 full stop works well and minimises loss of detail in the highlights.
Does anyone seriously disagree?

Jack

Nope, I've also found for Whites a polarising filter is very effective.

Gruditch