A Quick Burst

This time I went in the garden with the 100 - 500mm zoom lens hand held with manual focus. This is the first time I have set the camera to burst mode where it can take up to seven photos a second. I hoped that might give me a better chance of catching an insect in flight. Holding this set up anything near steady is quite a tussle as it weighs about 2.7Kg

First spotted though was this Small Tortoise butterfly resting



Then a hover fly led me a merry dance but out of dozens of flight shots a couple were reasonable.





Resting giving its wings a Spring clean



Finally a Peacock butterfly landed nearby



Feeding on a Dandelion



Another good afternoon in the Sun. Clear sky can mean warm daylight hours. Two days ago it reached 15C. Yesterday about 12C. Clear sky at night is a different matter this time of year. Lowest air temperature in the wee small hours was -2C with a good layer of frost.

All the photos here are small crops.

Pottering Round the Garden ...

... with the Canon 70D plus 17-85mm macro lens in hand to see what was about on a (relatively) warm, sunny afternoon.

Peeling bark on the old leylandii stump



A pair of amorous ladybirds who throught they were hidden from prying eyes



Lots of tiny pollen beetles, especially on the tête-a-tete.



A pretty pink Dianthus



A button daisy



Finally a rather tatty Peacock Butterfly on the Heather



It was lovely to get out in the fresh air without having to wrap up like an Inuit.
As so often happens the thing I went out to photograph eluded me.
I had spotted a Bee-fly hovering several times but it was camera shy.

Some You Capture, Some You Don't .....

.... photographs that is.

I suspect this photo of a Peacock butterfly taken about a week ago will be the last flutter I will capture this year now night temperatures are regularly down to single figures.



On our mid morning walkabout I had an Alice in Wonderland experience. I had decided that, despite the low temperature, as the Sun was out and the sky blue we would take the extra detour through the back of the village churchyard. Just as we arrived near the back of the church I spotted something brilliant white bounding through the unkempt older section of the graveyard. By its general shape and the way it moved I could swear it was a white rabbit. As is usual with many sightings like this it was in view such a short while. Penny hadn't noticed it at all.

As we ambled past the church building there was something we both saw and watched. A female Muntjac deer was slowly walking across the far side of the newer graveyard section. I suspect that was the first one Penny had ever seen. She just stood still, her gaze following its every move. Unfortunately as soon as I decided to get the little Nikon out from under two warm layers of clothing it had vanished from view.

With the colder mornings and freshly filled bird feeders more varieties are visiting the garden. A couple of Starlings have discovered the fat balls. How long before they invite the rest I wonder. A Great Tit is once again a regular along with dozens of House Sparrows. I noticed a Coal Tit making frequent visits to grab Sunflower hearts to take and hide in various parts of the garden.

Finally a couple of hurried shots of a Wren:





Time to put up a couple more feeders and see what we can attract.

A Friday Flutter

Lots of Peacock butterflies around at the moment feeding on next door's Buddleia or just resting and soaking up the Sun's heat:

Spring Flutters

Just getting ready for our afternoon walkies yesterday when this landed in the back garden:

Looking a bit battered:

Peacock Butterfly

Then as we walked down the lane I spotted a couple of:

Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly

They took me by surprise as at 12.5C with a cold breeze it wasn't the warmest of recent days.

Feeding in the Sunshine

I went out in the front garden to photograph a couple of self sown plants but ended up taking photos of insects instead.  First there was a lone Peacock butterfly finding plenty of nectar:










Plus lots of Bee Flies about with males occasionally landing on a flower to feed. Even when feeding they are still partly hovering as those spindly legs are not designed for holding on to petals:



 

A Day of Flutters

It took a while to get going but today was glorious and lived up to the forecast with my weather station recording a high of 19.7˚C with wall to wall Sunshine:



All the miniature Narcissus were in full bloom.



The highlight for me was seeing dozens of butterflies emerging from their Winter shelter spots.

Mainly Small Tortoiseshells:






and Peacocks:




The only other type I saw were five Brimstones but they would not settle anywhere near to be photographed. That is more Brimstones than I saw in the whole of last year. So far it is looking good for a decent year of flutters.

Also emerging from various cracks and cavities were more seven spot Ladybirds.

A different view for a change.





It looks as though today was a one off with temperatures forecast to return near the seasonal average of 7-10˚C in this part of the country.

Spring is on the Move

Frosty start to the day but once the Sun got its act together things began to look up. Afternoon temperature reached near 16C which was a nice change. I spotted several butterflies, a large yellow one when we out walk-about at lunch time. Probably a Brimstone. Quite a few Peacocks fluttering round the garden. A little video clip I managed to get with the Nikon. The same short bit shown three times:


Peacock Butterfly from Midmarsh on Vimeo.

Also lots of bees strutting their stuff:


Bee from Midmarsh on Vimeo.

As you will have noticed I am using Vimeo at the moment. I find that uploads to YouTube are extremely slow and can take two hours for a small file only to be told there was an error and nothing got uploaded. Vimeo is fast to upload but a free account then has a 45min delay before it is processed, but at least I know it has arrived safely.

Oh - and these are the first files I have processed and uploaded using the laptop and Windozy 7. It is not such a big leap from XP as I thought it would be. In some ways friendlier but too nagging in others. I probably haven't found the right settings yet.

Now I'm tearing what is left of my hair out with Vodafone as their site update seems to have screwed up my account. Had to have the account scrubbed and re-register but now waiting for it to fully update. Will know in an hour or two.

First Flutter of the Year

A few minutes ago I was checking to see what was around the pond when I saw a shape fluttering across. For a brief moment I thought it was a dragonfly. It landed on some gravel near the pond and stayed long enough to take a few shots.

The first Peacock Butterfly of the year:



Brilliant Sunshine but the air temperature is only 14.3C.

Same cropped photo process using the ReDynaMix plugin:

 

The oval on each photo is the Ellipse border from the Border Mania plugin.

First Flutters - Frog Spawn

Yesterday as I was pottering round the garden enjoying the Sunshine a Peacock Butterfly fluttered across in font of me and landed on some gravel. It looked a bit worse for wear but it was another sign that Spring is with us at last.



This afternoon a Large White fluttered across the front garden but it didn't stay for a photo call.

Earlier today I looked at the frogs and frog spawn on Hedgeland Tales and left a comment to say I didn't have any yet in my pond. You could have knocked me down with a feather when I checked my pond an hour or so later and saw two clumps of Frog Spawn which had appeared out of the blue.



Not a frog in sight though. I moved the spawn to the nursery pond as there are fish in the main one. A couple of hours later there was more spawn in the main pond but still not a frog in sight.

Monday was a Warm Lazy Day

Last Monday was the first time for many a day since I set up the Sun umbrella and the folding canvas chair and sat out in the garden for a few hours with the camera in my lap.

There are just two plants which are attracting dozens of insects. One is a line of four lavender bushes in the front garden. These have been attracting a continuous stream of scores of bumble bees and dozens of butterflies. The butterfly population is mainly Large Whites along with a few smaller white varieties. I pity any neighbours growing brassicas with such a large population looking for breeding grounds. I tried for some video of the lavender - not the best but does give an impression of the activity.

Wide view of the Large Whites
Close shot of a Small Tortoiseshell
Close shot of my first view of a Painted Lady
Finally a very world weary, wind battered Red Admiral on a fence. (The only one I have seen so far this year)



The other plant which has attracted bumble bees, butterflies and the occasional day flying moth is growing just over the fence in next door's garden.

Bumble Bees


Small Tortoiseshell


Peacock


Painted Lady


I kept seeing white butterflies landing on the lawn - well I say lawn but there is more clover than grass this year! It was the clover which was attracting this one - a Green-veined? which was laying its eggs under the clover leaves.



It has been very windy from time to time and many of the butterflies were looking the worse for wear. This is the Red Admiral from the video. It sat on the fence for a while soaking up the sun. I can't remember how long it is since I have seen one of these in the garden.



There are still plenty of Hoverflies about and the lily flower shown a few days ago is still attracting many. They investigate everything including the seed feeders.



... and various other plants


... including this onion flower head which also sheltered a crop of tiny black beetles.



Bobby had taken up one of his favourite positions in the entrance to the shed where he could find a bit of shade and still keep an eye on me.



Not many birds came to visit the feeders as I was fairly close to them. Those that did kept a watchful eye on me.



One young Sparrow arrived with parent and continually fluttered its wings to remind the adult it was feeding time.



A couple of House Sparrows peered down to see if it was their turn for the seed feeder....



... and a Starling showed off his new coat of many colours.



The adult Starlings have little trouble balancing on the fat ball feeders but the juveniles find it a problem trying to grip the slippery wires.



Finally a seven spot Ladybird investigating the clover leaves. I wonder if it found the White Butterfly's eggs?



Wow - if you made it to the end, thanks for visiting.