Butterflies turned out to be the main theme this afternoon, even though originally I was looking for birds, and especially some more Robin photographs. I went for a walk along one of my favourite stretches of an old railway line, now a cycle path. After walking a short way I decided to explore a farm track that went off to the side and through the trees. It soon became a beautifully quiet track between woodland and fields. In the sunshine there were Spring butterflies in considerable numbers. I saw four species but the male Orange Tip was too quick for me. As usual I was beaten in my attempt to get a good Orange Tip photograph.
But First, A Magpie
Looking across into the field there was at first quite a number of Herring Gulls. On my arrival, though, they all flew several hundred yards further away. In contrast this Magpie was quite unconcerned about my presence. In my experience this is unusual. I find that Magpies will fly away much quicker than smaller birds as soon as they see me in the distance. This one, though, was too busy searching for food to worry much about me. I know this is a diversion from butterflies. I’ve posted it here simply because I usually find Magpies difficult to capture in the camera and this one was so accommodating.
Back To Butterflies
The header image of this post shows a Small Tortoiseshell butterfly. There were several of these, some in pairs circling round and round, presumably in some kind of mating game. As you’ll gather, I’m no expert on butterflies.
Peacock Butterflies
The other colourful species was the Peacock, and the one in the image above allowed me to get very close without flying away. This next image is almost a head-to-head. I went down on my knees to get a front photo near to the level of the subject rather than the usual top-down.
It’s just a pity that the insect’s face was in the shade. I’m going to try getting more images like this over the coming weeks and hope to get the face clearer. It’s a quite different technique from photographing birds at a distance. I do have a 105 mm lens that is specifically designed for this kind of work. Maybe I should put it on my other camera and in future come out with two, one for distance and the other for close-up
A Small White?
However, to finish off for now, here’s my other butterfly species from the afternoon. I think it’s a Small White, but my book tells me that it should have a spot in the centre of the wing and more dark marking around the edges. Maybe it was the strong sunlight that “bleached” them out. Certainly it was small and white. If any butterfly expert is reading this maybe you can let me know what it is by leaving a comment below.
That’s it for today. It’s been a good one.
Just before you go though, have you looked at earlier nature posts here? Or read my page about “My Little Bird Books“ on my new MyBirds.blog?
