French fritillary's steal the show

This post is a summary of all the fritillary's that we saw over the last couple weeks here in the Dordogne / Bordeaux area of France.  The genus is easily the most common type of butterfly and to put it simply, they are everywhere.  They have dominated every day's sightings.  Glanville and Meadow Fritillary are the commonest.  The image above and below are Glanville's.

The majority of the shots were taken in farmland, near vineyards and virtually all beside the road in the numerous ditches and drains.  The French roads and highways are maintained differently to the UK.  Every road seems to have a drainage ditch which are left to nature.  The ditches are splashes of colourful flowers which in turn supports these stunning butterflies. 

Above:  Glanville Fritillary.  Below: Knapweed Fritillary

Meadow Fritillary above and lower three.

Small Pearl-bordered being shown some unwanted interest from a Silver-washed Fritillary.

Above and below: Spotted Fritillary.

Above and below: Silver-washed Fritillary.

All of the images were handheld.  Taken with the macro 105mm with VR constantly on.  Aperture used was F/10 or greater depending on available light.  Thanks to John Chapple for verifying the ID.  Any ID comments very welcome.

The long and short of it

I took these images yesterday no more than a couple hundred meters from each other.  They were taken near Le Teich, a Parc Ornithologique reserve which, according to the fatbirder website,  is supposed to be France's answer to the UK's Minsmere.  The reserve in fact held limited birdlife, no dragonflies or butterflies at all.  These shots were taken outside the reserve on the edge of the sandstone conifer forest.  It was just pure chance that we should find both Long-tailed Blue and Short-tailed Blue so close to each other.

EXIF Detail:  Aperture F/11.  ISO 500. Exposure -0.7EV. Shutter 1/200s. Matrix metering.  Lens: 105mm macro hand held.

Short-tailed Blue in Bordeaux

This female Short-tailed Blue is a tick for me and a surprise one at that.  It was taken in the same clump as the damselfly in the previous post.  I was busy getting to grips with the damselfly and this little stunner appeared in front of me.  Luckily I had already taken some shots of the damselfly and could then concentrate on the blue.  You can just see the tail extension on the hind wing. 

White-legged Damselfly

I took this shot last week and after some verification, posted the image here.  I have been using the latest European Dragonfly Field Guide and initially id'd this as Blue Featherleg.  I was told it was a White-legged Damselfly but it seems that the fieldguide likes to use both names!  Anyway, it is a Platycnemis pennipes!

The image was taken near Perissac, Bordeaux using a 105mm macro lens. 

Silver-washed Fritillary's going about their chores

Silver-washed Fritillary's seem to be common near woodland clearings here in south west France.  We saw about 15 in one area. Several couples were flirting and courting together and eventually I managed to photo these two completely oblivious to my presence.  We saw at least six other species of fritillary and images of these will appear later on this blog.  

Large Copper

I took these shots yesterday in bright evening sunshine.  This is my first ever sighting of Large Copper and I was stunned at how bright this butterfly actually is.

EXIF Detail: Aperture F/9 Shutter speed 1/800s. Exposure -0.7EV.  Matrix metering.  ISO 250.  WB Cloudy. Lens 105mm Macro.  Handheld (in stinging nettles).

Southern White Admiral in Dordogne, France

These two images of two different individuals were taken yesterday.  The rain finally cleared and miraculously, scores of butterflies suddenly appeared.

EXIF detail.  Aperture priority.  F/13. ISO 250.  Shutter speed 1/200s.  EV 0.0.  White Balance set to cloudy. Centre weighted exposure. Spot focus. Tripod mounted. Nikon 105mm Micro Nikkor F/2.8 lens with Nikon D3x. 

Mixed up weather in Bordeaux, France

I've been offline for a while because of a massive thunderstorm here in Bordeaux.  A huge bolt of lightning and thunderclap wiped out the power.  Anyway, here is one image I snapped of a lightning bolt over the local village of Perissac. 

Dark Green Fritillary in Cornwall

These two very different Dark Green Fritillary's were taken tonight.  The dark individual above is a fresh adult and not yet aquired its' dark green underwing.

EXIF Detail: Aperture F/10.  Exposure EV0.0  ISO 1000. WB Cloudy. Shutter 1/100s. Centre weighted metering. Tripod mounted.  VR on. Lens 105mm Macro. D3x.

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.

Yellow Dung Fly close up

Continuing with my "season in macro", this image is a simple dung fly.  But I liked it, mainly because it shows such detail around the eyes and legs, but also the tiny droplets of rain attached to them.  The shot was taken in the rain and seems to have added some effect to the reflection and colour.

Teneral damselfly

These two macro images were taken last week of this newly emerged adult dragonfly.  Because it has just emerged, the appearance is anaemic looking and without the full colouration of the mature adult.  Damselfly's have a curious habit of moving away from you and hiding behind the stem.  This one did just that and I caught his eyes looking at me.  I had to move to manual focus as the camera just couldn't find the tiny spec of an eye.