Dark greens and High browns

At long last I managed to finally find some Dark Green Fritillary's at Penhale sands last night.  Several observers have already seen them but it's taken me about six visits to finally find this species.  As it happens I counted between 50 and 60 insects spread around the dune system.  All were in pristine condition, except for the very last one I found!  The image below was taken at the very last moment before the sun dropped behind the dune, hence the warm hues.

This morning I visited  South Dartmoor to look for the rare High Brown Fritillary.  The species is ultra rare in Cornwall now with the last known record being one at Kynance in 1996.  Thus I had to do a bit of twitching.  In contrast, at Aish Tor I saw at least 20 insects flying around strongly, once the sun came out.  I arrived there at about 8am and managed to photo one or two fairly static individuals warming up on the bracken.

Dark Green Fritillary, Penhale, Cornwall.

High Brown Fritillary at Aish Tor, Dartmoor. 

Female Azure Damselfly

I took this image of a female Azure Damselfly last week, early in the morning.  The dew spots are readily visible on the grass and on the wings and body.  The weight of the dew is bending the leaf so that it is resting on the grass.  I guess the insect has been roosting here all night or walked up the stem waiting for the sun to warm up its wings.  Early morning or late evening seems to be the only time when they are so obliging.  Either way, it gave me time to compose the image and get the background just right.

 

Brown Argus at Penhale in backlight

This evening I saw less than ten Brown Argus at Penhale.  Most were tatty and at the end of their life.  The second brood in July will be the next opporunity.  That said, with very strong low sunshine, I managed to get some quite nice back lit images as they perched on the tops, straining to get the last remnants of heat.

Brown Argus backlit with low sunshine. Nikon D3x, 105mm VR Macro Lens.

Brown Argus at Penhale, Cornwall

Brown Argus' were plentiful this evening.  These two posed nicely on top of the plants and allowed a nice soft background.  The weather was humid and misty which gave the light a strange cast.  The upside to this is that the exposure was perfect and required no post enhancements.

Both of these shots were taken in Aperture Priority at about five inches distance.  I had to increase the aperture to F/18.  The downside of this was just 1/40s shutter speed.  I switched the lens VR (vibration reduction) on and this coupled with the tripod enabled an in focus result.  The focus was set to manual to stop the lens hunting.