www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Week 8

Another week comes and goes soon be Christmas! Here continues the sequence of posts giving one and all the opportunity to showcase their favourite shots of 2014 (or the last time you saw one)!

Please could I ask that everyone waits until a topic has been opened by me for a particular species before posting photos? Of course our overseas members are very welcome to fill in the obvious gaps relating to rare UK migrants. As like last year details of locations, dates, times and circumstances would be welcome as would any accompanying stories and anecdotes or other observations of behaviour and interesting other points.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Large Blues were few and far between at Collard Hill this year, but quite late in the day on 15th June I did manage to find one or two. Despite the hour, it was very warm and sunny and they were reluctant to open those wings. Dave

I managed to see Britain's two most threatened species, the Large Blue and the High Brown Fritillary, on the same day and within about 100 yards of each other this year (in France, needless to say). Here is the arion. The spotting on the upperwing appears bolder than in British examples.
Not the best of photos but the only one I managed. I didn't see the species in Britain this year, after going to Collard Hill far too early for the butterfly.

After several unsatisfactory visits to Collard Hill to see this iconic UK species, Bill (Willrow) and I 'decamped' to Daneway Banks on Sunday 29th June and we both agreed it was a far better all round experience.

What's more, Large Blues were much more ubiquitous (15 seen on the day) and we managed to secure for ourselves a handful of intimate moments with a butterfly that isn't usually terribly co-operative as regards sitting to have its photo taken. Here's a male and a female:

Large Blue

This year I finally did it. I bit the bullet and drove to Collard Hill for my first ever Large Blue. It was actually surprisingly close and I’m not sure why it took so many seasons to pay Collard a visit.

I was worried at the start of the day that I might have left it too late as Collard was experiencing a poor year – with sightings well down on 2013 and the Blog warning people not to visit expecting a definite sighting. Indeed throughout the morning this was the way it was going with very few butterflies actually flying. There were only singles of Clouded Yellow, Small Skipper and Common Blue and very little else. Philzoid and I pressed on anyway scaling the steep slopes in the sweltering sun. Eventually we were informed by a young ranger that a Large Blue had been found and so we went and joined the ‘twitch’.
We did find another female later but this was my favourite shot as it is in the standard pose and so appropriate to my mind for my first image of a lifer.
Have a goodun

Wurzel

I paid two visits to Daneway Banks this year, with successful sightings on both occasions. In many respects, the first visit was the 'better', as I got several good sightings, including some nice shots of an 'open wing' male. On the second visit, I saw far fewer of these butterflies but, just as I was nearing the exit gate, I spotted a mating pair to the side of the path. Although they were continuously locked 'in cop', they were also gyrating slowly around their perch, offering a wide range of 'poses' - it was like having a model in a studio! I had plenty of time to experiment with different cameras (Nikon and Lumix) and a range of different photo techniques.

This one was taken with the Nikon using a small amount of 'fill in' flash to bring out the 'sparkle' in the blue-green scales. The male is smaller and distinctly bluer in colour whereas the larger female has greenish underwing scales. The light was failing as I was taking these photos and, just a few minutes after my last photo, rain started to fall.

I felt very privileged to have had this extended opportunity to photograph this rather special species.
Mike