John & Maria's Photography Pages

 

I have a little list....redux

Back in 2013 I added a post about missed butterfly opportunities.  Time moves on and the last couple of years have actually been very productive in terms of filling a few gaps.

Lets start with holly blues, Celastrina argiolus.  Double brooded, with spring and summer variants, they were prolific during summer in the Plymouth area last year, and, for the first time, I actually managed to get some good shots.  They tend to be a little skittish and my lens combination of choice with the EM1 Mkii was the 40-150mm f2.8 and 1.4x teleconverter to give me both excellent working distance; fast, accurate autofocus; and sharpness wide open.

One was even good enough to land to feed on the potato flowers in my back garden.  60mm macro for this shot.

With the number flitting around I'm hoping the spring brood will be equally prolific in 2024 and I can get shots of the darker spring form - and maybe a few shots with wings open.

I'd already found a couple of locations for small coppers, Lycaena phlaeas, in the Plymouth area and had a few shots post 2013 but I was delighted to find that they'd also moved into the no mow area 100m from my house and that yielded a number of good shots.

Attractive little things, they share a habit with their distant cousins the common blue, Polyommatus icarus.

There is a walk up to the moors at Shipley Bridge, near Buckfastleigh in Devon.  Paved, it's an ideal day out for Maria on her mobility scooter.  Once out of the wooded area and on open moorland I had my first sighting of the lovely small pearl bordered fritillary, Boloria selene.

Here's the male:

And the female:

I'm still looking for green hairstreaks and walled brown butterflies - but that's all part of the fun.  2024 maybe?