What ostacles have you encountered whilst butterfly spotting

steveh · Post by **steveh** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 6:35 pm

In the last week I have encountered...

1) A rather large snarling dog that was too close for comfort and barking constantly! And no owner to be seen

2) At the weekend went to Blean woods and tucked my socks in my trousers(wood ants) only on sunday morning to discover a tick with legs moving burrowed in my leg!

3) A group of lads that seemed a little too interested in my camera to be comfortable.

I suppose this is standard issue!? when out and about.

Dave McCormick · Post by **Dave McCormick** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 6:56 pm

Well does seem common practise. Be prepard for things like this.

I was out the other day and was about to shoot three different butterflies on a thistle when a clegg fly tried to bite me. I stumbled and fell itno the thistles.

Few weeks ago I was out in a local country park when 3 teens in scramblers came roaring past and disturbed my chances for a few common blue and a small heath and basic nice evening was gone too. Well hope that does not happen again, going back as soon as its warm (whenever that is)

Occationly pheasants leap out of the fields I am in and make me jump cause you can't see them in long grass.

One other time, I went out and did not notice a bump in the grassland I was in (it was very tall grass) and splash! I was in a marshy land area. Got soked from almost waist down.

Ants can be a bugger. I was photographing a Holly blue earlier this year and since it was only around for a few seconds here and there, I decided to sit down on this grassy rock nearby. A few seconds I looked down and saw red ants coming from mound and I was sitting on an ants nest! Got a bit bitten on hands but not much.

Hope you got the tick Steve, that must have been a nasty shock.

You can never be prepared for the world around you, no matter how hard you try.

yellowhammer · Post by **yellowhammer** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 6:59 pm

Nothing while specifically butterfly watching, but I have;

- had a labrador stick it's nose up my bum, pushing me over onto the adder I was photographing, making me put my hand on another adder I hadn't seen,

- crept into a bird hide (didn't want to disturb the kingfishers) to find a middle-aged chap 'enjoying' a Gentleman's Interest magazine,

- thoroughly enjoyed being, for want of a better word, 'mugged' by three boys who got a bit confused when I said 'no' to their request of 'Give us yer camera, or else'. A monopod and ten years of Chinese martial arts sword practice sorted them out.

steveh · Post by **steveh** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 7:17 pm

Superb and amazing replies gents!
And I thought the last week I had it bad!

Dave the tick was a shock! just have to wait for its head etc to apparently naturally come out of my leg?

And Yellowhammer.. its seems you have really been through the mill!
The fellow in the hide!

now that must have been a situation!..
wrong type of bird publication eh!

And as for the Monopod..well done..put them in thier place..with a pound of Manfrotto..

Brilliant stories!..anyone have any more?

Rogerdodge · Post by **Rogerdodge** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 8:08 pm

1/ Last Saturday at Bentley Wood left me with 4 tics, 2 on my stomach, one in my groin, and one on the side of my fist. How the little buggers get there with long sleeved shirt and tightly belted trousers defeats me. However, my record is 7 after a night 'nightjarring' in the New Forest - I await the symptoms of Lymes' disease
2/ I have also used a monopod to deter a dog from attack - however this dog attack was more amorous than agressive - but still unwanted - you can't creep up on a Dark Green Frit with a Jack Russell humping your leg!.
3/ A few years ago, I was pursuing the restless Graylings of Braunton Burrows, Canon SLR in hand. I crept over the edge of a dune to see a 'not so young', couple playing 'the beast with two backs'. They looked up to see this odd looking bloke creeping towards them with a long lens on his camera........
4/ I had a very similar experience with an adder - my wife warning me that one was only a few inches from my hand as I lent forward to photograph a Speckled Wood.
5/ In Spain, my wife was nearly killed by a pair of Damsel Flies. Rose was so fascinated by the courting flight of a pair of Damselflies, that she took a seat on a rock alongside the stream to watch them. After a few minutes there was an almighty crack, and the branch of the tree she was sat under fell, and she just rolled away as the branch crashed onto the rock she was sat on! I turned away from the bramble bush I was scanning just in time to see the branch crash down - I thought she was a goner!
Roger Harding

Post by **Padfield** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 8:13 pm

My heart-stopper was when I was photographing Gavarnie ringlets a few years ago on a high ridge in the Val d'Aran. I saw a flock of about 40 griffon vultures on a nearby hillside and started filming them (I got some lovely video). They were so fantastic I just lay and watched and filmed for quite some time, but I noticed they were getting fewer and fewer. When they seemed to have dwindled to one or two I got up and immediately felt something strange about the air, but I couldn't tell what. Looking up, I saw that all 40 vultures were circling about 20 metres above my head, and descending. These are birds with an 8 or 9 foot wingspan - huge and looming - absolutely terrifying. The books say griffons don't touch living flesh, but so far as I know vultures can't read.

I abandoned my filming, walked determinedly down the hill and the flock rose slowly again; but one sentry followed me from a distance almost all the way down. I only regret I didn't have the presence of mind to point the camera up to the sky when they were above me.

Oh, and I got a tick on my membrum virile two weeks ago, after wearing shorts to hunt satyrids.

Guy