Art Frames

[bugboy]

Bugboy, I will watch out for the courtship I think our county recorder shot a video of it so I will have a look before I put the wellies on and venture out as Salcey does get fairly muddy....

Bugboy, this is a link to two of David's videos.Did you shoot any video? I shall shoot some myself if I see the action. Looks like it may be a warm enough day soon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drVNjWU9HvQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oljagle7nrs

regards

Peter

No I didn't shoot any video. I must admit I've not explored that function on my camera, I really should though. You should see plenty of courtship, they really are nonplussed by nosey people with cameras!

[Art Frames]

No I didn't shoot any video. I must admit I've not explored that function on my camera, I really should though. You should see plenty of courtship, they really are nonplussed by nosey people with cameras!

I have just returned from seeing one green-veined white and one red admiral - and a drinker moth caterpillar. No courting, no roosting, no woodies.

But it was a nice..ish, sunny at times, but chilly, 2 mile walk in the wood. Perhaps tomorrow!

[Art Frames]

I forgot to add these above....please let me know if I have the wrong ID.

[Art Frames]

My annual pilgrimage to Ivinghoe and a rather wonderful site nearby (I am driven there so I don't have an exact reference) gave me some time with Duke of Burgundies, Green Hairstreaks and Small Blues. For once the weather, sun and relatively low breeze combined with a day out and good numbers of butterflies.

I wanted to start with the Small Blues which I always find to be challenging to get in interesting poses. But these egg laying shots were my highlights of the day.


Egg laying - Small Blue - Cupido minimus by Peter Willmott, on Flickr

And last but not least each year my pilgrimage is for the Duke... and it is always worth it - even when we don't see any butterflies. But this year it was magic. The butterflies were in a totally different area, but they understood the needs of the photographer. I have several hundred pictures to play with including focus stacks and 4K photo bursts. So if good ones are buried I'll add them later....

Duke of Burgundy Hamearis lucina by Peter Willmott, on Flickr

Duke of Burgundy Hamearis lucina by Peter Willmott, on Flickr

Duke of Burgundy Hamearis lucina by Peter Willmott, on Flickr

Duke of Burgundy Hamearis lucina by Peter Willmott, on Flickr

Duke of Burgundy Hamearis lucina by Peter Willmott, on Flickr

And to add to my excellent day out. The secret Flickr police made a picture I took and uploaded yesterday one of their pictures of the day... So a few thousand people have visited to see a banded demoiselle eating a mayfly.. (as opposed to the normal 30-50 that would normally come and visit such a populist image). Still it was a nice gesture. I only wish I knew what their taste is it seems so random

Banded Demoiselle eating a mayfly by Peter Willmott, on Flickr

Oh and sorry if you haven't eaten yet...and have lost your appetite

[bugboy]

Utterly fabulous pictures as always Peter, those Small Blues in particular. Like you say finding a different pose can be a challenge but ovipositing and courtship always adds a bit of personality to the images.

Oh and yes you did get the caterpillar ID correct

[Pauline]

Just catching up with a few diaries Peter and I can see why that gorgeous Demoiselle was selected as Picture of the Day Fascinating shot with an incredible amount of detail and the colours are stunning. Thank you for posting.

[trevor]

I'm in awe of the intricate detail in your Banded Demoiselle image.
Your challenge this season, is to obtain a Purple Emperor image of equal quality.
I would certainly look forward to that .

Very best wishes,
Trevor.

[David M]

Echoing what others have said, Peter. That demoiselle image is amazing. I'm not in the least surprised it was picked out on Flickr.

[Art Frames]

Thanks Bugboy, Pauline and Trevor. At the moment so little is on the wing that I would welcome any butterfly to shoot. But I will accept your challenge

What else do I need to get beyond these Trevor - I know you are an aficionado

Purple Emperor - Apatura iris by Peter Willmott, on Flickr

Purple Emperor - Apatura iris by Peter Willmott, on Flickr

[image]23402[/image] click to enlarge

The last one was shot on slide film in the 80s so it was a younger and very excited Peter. Having taken endless pictures of HM on a fox scat he began to appreciate my salty sweat. So hair, head and then hand all got a lengthy visit.

Thank you all for the nice comments about the damselfly shot. I took this one yesterday of a blue tailed damsel eating a greenfly. I'm waiting with bated breath for the Flickr accolades...perhaps not...

Blue-tailed Damselfly eating lunch by Peter Willmott, on Flickr

I'm off to Hungary for a field trip in ten days. So I hope to get Trevor a Poplar Admiral or Hungarian Glider too.

[Art Frames]

Echoing what others have said, Peter. That demoiselle image is amazing. I'm not in the least surprised it was picked out on Flickr.

Thank you too David. I think our comments crossed in the post

[trevor]

Yes please, Peter. A Poplar Admiral will do nicely, a Butterfly I would love to see.
I am sure you will seek out some exotica in Hungary.

Have a good, safe trip,
Trevor.

[Wurzel]

Beautiful set of shots recently Peter, those Small Blue are stunning and as for His Nibbs

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Art Frames]

I am back from my first visit to Hungary and will share some of the delightful butterflies I was able to see and spend some time with. Over 8 days we were in two wonderful and quite different areas. These were the Aggtelek National Park (a Unesco heritage site with extraordinary caves - which we didn't visit) and Bükk National Park, a forested mountainous area at the southern edge of the Carpathians. The rich, natural environment is protected and respected and usage is well managed. I confess the landscape and farming I saw whilst getting there was much more like other countries than I was expecting. But the country, people, food and facilities were all wonderful and highly recommended.

I saw a few more special butterflies to add to my personal lifetime sightings. I was a little sad to not see Poplar Admiral or Nettle Tree both would have been icing on the cake. But I will share some lovely sights.

The longest memories will probably be from seeing fritillaries puddling in huge numbers. These High Brown and Silver Washed are photo examples but I will eventually post some video as that is far more evocative of the place. The trip had a lot of puddle and dung watching. All natural, no tins from Tesco needed.

A few Silver Washed Fritillaries by Peter Willmott, on Flickr

High Brown Fritillary - dung party by Peter Willmott, on Flickr

On day one we saw 46 different species with over 80 seen over the week. I was quite surprised at not seeing some quite common species 'to me' like gatekeepers and ringlets. And you do need to check the skippers and heaths quite closely...but some butterflies do stand out a little more from the surroundings.

Scarce Copper - Lycaena virgaureae by Peter Willmott, on Flickr

Although It was not always easy to know which Copper you were currently seeing. Large were quite similar but as you'd expect Scarce were commoner.

Large Copper - Lycaena dispar by Peter Willmott, on Flickr

Large Copper - Lycaena dispar)(fem) by Peter Willmott, on Flickr

Purple-shot I had seen before. But Purple-edged were new to me and a delightful subject to photograph.

Purple-shot Copper - Lycaena alciphron by Peter Willmott, on Flickr

Purple-edged Copper - Lycaena hippothoe by Peter Willmott, on Flickr

A butterfly which we hoped to see, and from all accounts expected to only glimpse in flight, we actually saw three specimens of - woodland Brown. This one particularly acted out of character and became very placid and stayed with us and was encouraged to pose on several flowers over about half an hour.

Woodland Brown - Lopinga achine by Peter Willmott, on Flickr

Woodland Brown - Lopinga achine by Peter Willmott, on Flickr

Trevor I see has been enjoying his days with the Emperor. I had a number of encounters with the Lesser Purple Emperor both dark and the lighter 'Clytie' form. No idea why it is called 'lesser' as it isn't...!

Lesser Purple Emperor - Apatura ilia by Peter Willmott, on Flickr

Lesser Purple Emperor - Apatura ilia (ssp Clytie) by Peter Willmott, on Flickr

Alongside the Emperors were Gliders. This the Hungarian Glider

Hungarian Glider - Neptis rivularis by Peter Willmott, on Flickr

and this the Common Glider.

Common Glider - Neptis sappho by Peter Willmott, on Flickr

All of the Tortoiseshells. This was a lovely and fresh Scarce 'Yellow legged' Tort.

Yellow-legged Tortoiseshell - Nymphalis xanthomelas by Peter Willmott, on Flickr

showing a bit of leg...

Yellow-legged Tortoiseshell - Nymphalis xanthomelas by Peter Willmott, on Flickr

This was a very energetic Large on a very hot day.

Large Tortoiseshell - Nymphalis polychloros by Peter Willmott, on Flickr

And to conclude this first inundation one of my favourite 'photos' a Pearly Heath.. I just love the details in this image

Pearly Heath - Coenonympha arcania by Peter Willmott, on Flickr

As you may recall someone within Flickr selects pictures they think are 'the best for that day' and although I am flattered I do usually also scratch my head. I uploaded 70 pictures. The Pearly Heath has been seen by 26 people. This Ascalaphid shot was made a flickr favourite and has now been seen by 4593 people with 150+ making it a personal favourite... Social media is so bizarre.

Sulphur Ascalaphid (Owlfly) - Libelloides coccajus by Peter Willmott, on Flickr

I made an album of my trip Hungarian Butterflies if you wish to see a few more. But I will be adding to this here in the next few days.

[trevor]

Brilliant stuff, Peter, Brilliant.

[Goldie M]

Fantastic What a trip you had Goldie

[bugboy]

Yet more stunning images and of rather difficult species too!

[Wurzel]

Absolutely stunning Peter

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Art Frames]

Thank you Wurzel, Bugboy, Goldie M and Trevor for your kind comments.

There were a few more....

The blues included the usual suspects plus a new one for me. A Green-underside Blue which I believe was egg-laying.


Green-underside Blue - Glaucopsyche alexis


Green-underside Blue - egg laying

And I was the only one to find and see this Chequered blue, it was there and then gone.


Chequered Blue - Scolitantides orion


Chequered Blue - Scolitantides orion

It was very restless, and tricky to follow in bright sunlight. 6 shots taken and next thing I know I'm following a Mazarine Blue instead....

And my final Blue today was Reverdin's which I have never had a reliable ID on before. It was alongside Silver-studded and clearly different.


Reverdin's Blue - Plebejus argyrognomon
I have others but love this feisty pose.

Changing tack for a moment here is one for the moth lovers this was the nearest I got to a Black-veined White this year.


Black-veined Moth - Siona lineata

But as Trevor will remember the Clouded Apollo does have something like the Black-veined White about it too. Although it is unmistakably an Apollo.


Clouded Apollo - Parnassius mnemosyne


Clouded Apollo - Parnassius mnemosyne

Of the dozens of Clouded Apollos seen in a couple of locations... however many I followed I never found one that knew how to take up a decent pose!

I spotted my first ever Chequered Skipper mud puddling in a huge tractor rut. It was glorious black mud and a super colour for a background to the tiny skipper.


Chequered Skipper-mud puddling

It then took up a far less challenging pose to photograph. And I took a number of variations on a theme. But just one chance at the mud!


Chequered Skipper - Carterocephalus palaemon

And finally for today, before I outstay my welcome. In addition to butterflies I was able to photograph some other wildlife including one of the many white stork nests. In some villages there were up to a dozen nests on chimneys, telegraph poles and other incongruous nest sites.


White Stork nest

This site gave me a shot of the parents and 3 youngsters. I have others with both parents but by then the shot gets a bit crowded!

Thanks for looking, sorry for the numbers of pictures. I have no idea how many is too many!

[Wurzel]

When they're that good the more the merrier Peter, that Chequered Blue - that is the most wanted on my most wanted list

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Art Frames]

When they're that good the more the merrier Peter, that Chequered Blue - that is the most wanted on my most wanted list

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Hope these help until you see your own, from last year in France. They are beautiful and unforgettable.


Chequered Blue


Chequered Blue

Thanks for your support and kindness Wurzel.