Monday 26 September 2011

Oversley Woods 3rd July 2011 pt 3

In the early afternoon i met Gill up in the centre of the woods at the purple emperor "congregation" area , where the males rest in the top of the pine trees on the look out for females and give  "arial fighting"  displays!
I really never thought i would ever sit and watch butterflys in "combat flight"  flying 100ft in the tree tops, but having been told all about it , i just had to see what it was all about!

 3 hours later, we where still watching them!   arial fighting between the tree tops over a 50 m long area in the pine trees above the central clearing!   i really cant describe how exciting it actually was, but i still remember it in every detail now, 2 months on!  and cant wait to see it again next year.
i think this day was the influence for all the years butterfly shots

here is Gill shooting the emperors in the pine tops!



this shot was taken by Gill  ,  taken with canon 300mm L & 500d .  [better than any i got ]





after all the excitment ended in the tree tops,  a number of freshly emerged red admirals  "Vannesa atalanta" arrived in the clearing and started resting on the bracken fronds, one even nearly landed on Gills head!   that would have made a great picture! lol
they looked amazing in prestine condition, one of uks most beautifull butterflys but so often overlooked in the search for less common more interesting species!  which is a real shame as a few of our common butterflys are stunning!

shot with canon 5d2, 100mm L MACRO handheld





here is Gill shooting Vannesa  which you can see on the fern frond in this 2 frame focus stacked image




and here is Her  picture as shot above


many thank to Gillian for allowing me to use her images

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