Thank you everyone. I must scan in a few more paintings. I had this one already. It goes back a number of years (1975) to my days at Art School in Exeter. You may well see my interests have not changed from today. However at that time I had no camera, so this was entirely from inside my head. You wi...

I love the damsels. I have spent many happy hours photographing them and then even longer trying to work out which is which. I wish as a young lad I had also studied dragons and damsels alongside butterflies as I would probably be as familiar with those. Maybe not, but the names and ID features just...

As I have a minute I can add a couple of recent paintings of mine. I am in the process of framing them (hence part 2 of the forum name) :shock: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51048765838_1cd93f0ca4_k.jpg Brimstones in the sunshine by Peter Willmott , on Flickr There is no more wonderful colour ...

Hi Mike - I will try to answer. I have not sold anything :D even though the Canon 90D gives me pretty much all I need. I am having more and more trouble with my eyesight. I really struggle with things I never did. The dslr just takes lovely pictures out of the box, no drama. I don’t need to constant...

Thank you Mike. Words of great wisdom... Much better to write when you have something interesting to say I have spent months in silence so that sounds about right, :D But today, I thought I'd put some pictures up from another local wood which Mike Oxon has also visited. Each year it has a huge perce...

Thank you for your sympathy Wurzel. But you have more of an excuse, working and family life is a major disruption to a full and active hobby :D . But, in truth, I am not programmed for social media, all my life I have failed every time I started a diary, or a new filing system, or anything which nee...

As always I find myself knee deep in pictures and falling behind. But I wanted to include something which I had not been privileged to see before and found absolutely wonderful. We were walking in a really nice mixed wood near to Silverstone. It can be very quiet but much of the walk was accompanied...

Hello Trevor, I look forward to seeing your PEs I have been checking in, but as I had little to share I had let things go. Say hi to Doug. Did he get his photo qualification before everything locked down? My naturetrek to Spain was to have been last year, then this and now next year. Maybe it will b...

I was expecting to see a few more Emperors in this thread having seen quite a number already in my local woods and having a couple of very nice close encounters. I posted a few of the photos, plus a short video on my diary page https://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=9248&...

This short video may be of interest...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rmY_Nyx9wI[/video]

Purple Emperor - HD 720p

I have not posted in a long while but having logged on to see your Emperor shots I found there were not as many sightings as I expected and thought maybe you'd like to see some from my most recent encounters. These were taken at Bucknell Wood in Northants on the 11th and then the 13th of July. The f...

I would love to be able to get down to achieve those eye-level shots. I know you complain about a few aches, but I wouldn't be able to get up again :( The detail and loveliness of the pictures is even nicer when I click through to the full sized image. A shame that the diary doesn't show them a touc...

Never seen this before. A Speckled Wood egg laying. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48013360966_405976d943_c.jpg Egg-laying Speckled Wood by Peter Willmott , on Flickr I was happily trying to get the two Wood Whites both in focus in the shot above when I saw a brown blur at knee height and took ...

Grrr. :evil: Similar thing happened to me a few years ago when Photobucket suddenly changed the rules and I lost numerous images. David, you are more patient than I am. I did delete a bit and then thought...'Oh dear maybe life is too short' (in a shorter way ... using a phrase that rhymes with Phot...

Thanks Bugboy, nice to hear that. I find winter a challenge at the best of times so probably good that I hid.
Trevor, I must get over to Strumpshaw Fen, I will add it to my list. Your shots look good. I must admit the Hawk moths would have made it for me too.

I have had a break from posting for a number of reasons. Not the least of which was Flickr changing the rules and making me delete a few thousand shots. (OK - I could have paid - but I thought I'd wait and see what they do in the longer term). So I watched as many of the pictures earlier on in my di...

A great story and some nice pictures. You didn't specifically mention the provencal short-tailed blue, but it is a nice fresh one. Usually I see more of those and less of the short-tailed, good to see them together, it adds to the confusion about where to stagger next. I must confess I have been rea...

At Salcey Forest, in Northants. I enjoyed a few hours with ovipositing females. https://farm1.staticflickr.com/884/42776121021_5ce4335a62_c.jpg This one includes a fresh egg. https://farm1.staticflickr.com/884/42725792122_2567f8394c_c.jpg I also shot some video which is available here https://www.yo...

Two holidays in a year sounds like a plan - even better would be to travel for about five weeks across Europe stopping here and there and wherever looks good I agree with Mike's comment :D . Thank you, that's a great idea and I will start the discussions going. Unfortunately, it won't be until we b...

You have put very well that 'hollow' feeling after the holiday. In many ways that makes me wonder about the whole holiday thing. Whether it is really sensible to travel to wonderful, sunny and bright butterfly sanctuaries with dozens of different and exciting new species, staggering numbers - someti...