22 September, 2010

Lots of Green

Lots of Green...


Haven't been getting out in the field much recently, but I did try out the macro lens on this baby Stink bug. They look totally different from the adults of the species, and I did think it was a totally different species until I had a proper look on the interweb.



Hopefully I'll post something interesting soon. There's a Spotted Crake just down the road from me which I'm currently contemplating on paying a visit. Knowing my luck though, just thinking about the bird will cause it to leave; currently contemplating a Crake... try saying that after a few pints.

11 September, 2010

Bushy Park Sunset

Bushy Park Sunset...



The weather over the last couple of days has been brilliant, and every night there has been a nice sunset to finish off with. The other evening I decided to cycle down to Bushy to see if I could catch the sunset using the wide-angle lens, with a backdrop of the surrounding grassland. I almost missed it, with an unexpected build-up of cloud.

With the gates about to be shut and the light going, I didn't spend long in the park, but just had enough time to get some photos as the sun went behind the clouds for the last time.

02 September, 2010

Silver-spotted Skipper

Silver-spotted Skipper

At this time of year, as we enter the autumn, few species of butterfly are emerging for the first time. Silver-spotted Skipper is one of these few, and for a few weeks between mid-August and early-September, this species can be found flying fast around suitable chalk downland habitats. They are quite rare and confined to a few spots around the south of England.

A real stronghold for this beautiful butterfly is Old Winchester Hill, in Hampshire, where its favourite caterpillar footplant- Sheep's Fescue, thrives on the south-facing chalkland slopes. Old Winchester Hill is not only good for wildlife, but is also a great place to just go walking with the family, so we went down there early yesterday morning to try and catch up with these butterflies.

The weather couldn't have been any better, with hot sun, and very little wind meaning that butterflies would be out feeding in the open, taking advantage of the weather window. One species certainly taking advantage of the weather was the Chalkhill Blue, which was out on the hillside in very large numbers, allowing me to try out the new lens on them...


Note the chequered markings on the edge of the hindwings that distinguish Chalkhill Blue from any other species of British blue. This is a female...


The majority of the Chalkhills on the hill were males, and when a female turned up, it was a scramble to try and mate with her...


The lucky guy...


As we got further into the walk, more butterflies started to appear, such as the below Small Copper, but there  was still no sign of Silver-spotted Skipper...


Before we arrived at the reserve, I'd done a bit of research online, and according to Alan Thornbury's brilliant site (documenting the butterflies of Hampshire), the best place to see the skippers on Old Winchester Hill were the slopes to the south of the Hill Fort.

With this in mind, I headed over there, and was not disappointed. I soon caught a glimpse of one of these fast flying insects as it dashed past me, but their speed, and in ability to keep still mean't they were an absolute nightmare to photograph. After 30 minutes of chasing them around the downs, I opted for a new method and decided to see if the butterflies would come to me. Before too long, a Silver-spotted Skipper came and landed a few metres away, and after a bit of crawling on all fours, I was close enough for a frame-filler...


The butterfly was very laid back, and did not react to movement like I'd expected it to. It allowed me to move  around to a side on view- its when viewed side on with wings closed that you can really begin to see why its called a Silver-spotted Skipper!



This is probably the last new butterfly I will add to my list this year, and almost completes my challenge to see all British Skippers, with just the absence of Chequered Skipper, a very rare species confined to a few areas of Scotland.

A great day, with a great butterfly to boot. I thik I'm going to have a lot of happy outings with this new lens... although prehaps not as much as I'd like to in the next few months, what with college starting soon. One things for sure, I could do with another summer!!

01 September, 2010

Macros at Bookham Common

Macros at Bookham Common...

I've been wanting to get a proper macro lens for insect photography for quite a while now but the lenses have always been out of my price range. Recently however, I found I had saved up enough money to buy myself a Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro lens. The lens has been given brilliant reviews so I was expecting good results when I gave it a little test run at Bookham Common yesterday.

The weather was perfect for insects, with sunny skies and a gentle breeze meaning everything was active.

Scorpion Fly were numerous, so called because of their abdomen which appears to curl like that of a Scorpion, although you can't see it from this photo. The len's autofocus isn't it's strong point, being quite noisy and slow, but for macros I mainly use manual focus, which is easy and quick to use; allowing me to quickly adjust the lens to focus onto this flighty insect...


The lens' extremely close focus distance gave nice, frame filling shots of Helophilus Pendulus, a common Hoverfly on the Common, without any need to crop...


And of Common Darters, looking a bit worn for wear as we enter the autumn...



And a Speckled Wood, which allowed me to get close whilst it sunned itself...


I almost looked right past this spider, which had positioned it's legs so that it was as thin as the stem, presumably to allow it to catch prey un-noticed...


An added bonus was stumbling upon some young Toad along the path, and with help from the family, they were safely moved to an area of moist grass...


This lens couldn't be more different from what I'm used to, and the distance it can focus to is absolutely phenomenal to me at least, whilst still producing sharp and clear images.

A real test for the lens will be when I go to try and photograph a rare butterfly, occupying chalk downland in the South for just a few weeks every year, on Old Winchester Hill. See how I did in tomorrow's post...