Some lovely, Specklies, David, and that vibrant Common Blue too! Curiously, the Speckled Woods are now between broods where I am... I wonder if you are ahead of me on the other side of London (or t'other way about...).

Cheers,

Dave

A mislabelling of a file has meant I missed out a day. 25th May was not blank at all, and was the outing I had strangely filed away as 27th May. Is this what they call a "senior moment"? :) 25th May - Back to Cotley Hill - coming up soon - starring Marsh Fritillaries and a varied supportin...

Cheers, Wurzel - it was a good day yesterday, despite the weather collapse mid-morning! :) Another "blank" day followed on 25th, and though 26th May was better, I didn't get to see much on my usual local walk. The Brown Argus were all fresh, and showed subtle differences. The first one spo...

The rest of what was seen locally on May 24th was more typical spring fare (though without Brimstones and Orange Tips). Most of my Large White sightings are of butterflies relatively high up and only settling almost out of reach - like these two. LW1 240524.JPG LW2 240524.JPG At least GVW are more a...

...those in context shots. Any tips. Do you use any special settings ? The particular technique I use only really works if the butterfly is well-settled (that last Orange Tip was down for the night and the Small Copper a few posts back had found a favourite spot and was staying there!). I get the c...

In the end, 20th May notched up over 12 hours of sunshine, and 22 degrees was reached locally. My afternoon walk therefore saw lots of butterfly activity to add to my morning excursions on the chalk of the Chilterns. I counted a respectable 60 butterflies from 13 different species: Holly Blue 18 Sma...

Cheers, Wurzel - it has been a bit of a Blues Festival in these recent posts, but fresh ones are hard to resist... :) Thanks for the orchid ID - I thought that's what they were, but I'm rarely sure about this subject. However, I found some bee orchids on my local patch the other day (I recognised th...

That was rather a splendid Grizzly, Wurzel - it rather made up for the rest of the day. :) I'm convinced clouds follow me around sometimes too. I often seem to suffer from "cloud streets" where a continuous line of the fluffy white buggers is aimed precisely at the sun, and half a mile to ...

20th May , Pitstone continued: female Small Blues. As mentioned earlier, females of the species were easy to find today, and most seemed quite fresh. They are very dark, uniformly almost black (unlike any other UK butterfly I can think of). They also display an iridescent sheen at certain angles to...

Thank you, Katrina - with so many Holly Blues to play with, it's good to see the more experimental shots coming off and being appreciated. :) Monday 20th May promised more sunshine, so I chose to head north this time and once again the early low cloud did indeed dissipate (though it took longer than...

After returning from Denbies on 19th, there was a bit of time in the long May afternoon to have a quick look locally again. For some reason it turned into a bit of a Holly Blue bonanza, but there were a handful of other things too... Comma1 190524.JPG RA1 190524.JPG ...including a handsome new male ...

One way or another, that was a bit of a ha(i)ry outing, Wurzel! I'm glad you sorted the camera problem quickly, though... I like the GVW shots - a very photogenic butterfly.

Cheers,

Dave

Cheers, Paul and Wurzel - I'm going to keep trying till I finally get one in focus! :) Sunday 19th May started with low cloud, but I had faith in the forecast that it would quickly burn off - in fact, in the half an hour or so between leaving home and arriving down at Denbies that's precisely what h...

Sounds like an exceptional day, Katrina - I especially like your first Glanville shot, plus that Peacock comfortably sat at the end.

Cheers,

Dave

My second bite at the Cotley Hill cherry today resulted in a varied selection of Marsh Fritillaries (and an array of other species too). MF3 250524.JPG MF4 250524.JPG MF1 250524.JPG Though no two ever seem to look the same, this one stood out as being a bit different. MF6 250524.JPG A full report co...

Good to hear those positive vibes about Sidbury, Wurzel - there maybe opportunities next week should the sun cooperate... :) I'm with you on the Small Blues - a fresh male can be midnight blue with a sprinkling of tiny silvery stars: sublime. :) I suspect there won't be many more Peacocks as good as...

Thank you, Katrina. :) I do try to include a few context/habitat shots so I can remember more precisely where particular butterflies were found, as well as somehow making them less anonymous. Sometimes a general cluttered green background isn't too helpful, and the shots with completely blank backgr...

Good to see they're out now, Trevor - lovely and fresh too. Now all we need is some more sunshine!

Cheers,

Dave

In this topsy-turvy week, Thursday 16th May was once again nearly sunless, and cooler than Wednesday. The cloud must have been a bit thinner, though,as a handful of butterflies were to be found on my local patch (including the Brown Argus missing from Wednesday's impressive roster! :) ). This butter...

Considering it was the only butterfly I saw, Wurzel, that Small Copper made the walk very worthwhile. It certainly was a cracker. :) In contrast, Wednesday 15th May was a perfect spring day - highs of 21 degrees and 10 hours of sunshine. I stayed local and ended up with a total of over a hundred but...