Another Week Of The Inferno

The lemonade has all boiled away, we didn't even need to turn the ovens on at work - just left them outside  and various other 'oh, it's so hot' attempts at humour..


It didn't stop me from continuing my madness quest for flutterbies.

With other things to do on my mind, I didn't get out on the Patch until later on in the day, where it was strangely quiet..?!?

Anyways, I had a prowl about and found a few things worthy of shooting, including some actual first shots for the year! Gasp.

Navelwort

Under an overhang - so still quite fresh

Petty Spurge

Kidney Vetch

Ok, enough flowers of a dubious nature..

Greater Knapweed,

with Six-spot Burnet Moths

Love the luminous red bits

Marbled Whites like Knapweed too

[bit more Common, though]

Red-tailed Bumblebee

on Spear Thistle

Bee sp.

Beetle sp.

on Small Scabious

Ringlet

Small Whites

[only viewable through a fence, it seems]

And we need a bird, so here's a confiding juvenile;

"Got any chips, mate?"

After being driven slightly nutty by them the weekend before - and indeed on the day [they took far too much stalking] - it was satisfying to finally catch a Ringlet on the record.


Then we turn to the next day, when I defied 30°+ heat to go a hunting, acting on gen from a couple of sources. What would I find?

No frickin' Horseflies, for once! :D

Yes, that merits first place in the report.

I found 15 spp. of butterfly, some of which even slowed down enough to get, though my target once again took three sweltering hours to finally catch. Was it worth it? My little pocket camera is no leg-sized canon, so shooting through swaying branches [the wind always picks up when I try for these] at anything that won't let me put the lens about an inch away is a challenge.. Yeah, yeah, enough prescuses, here we are;

Bugger!

You can see what it is, right?

Try again;

Purple Hairstreak

Gotcha!

Hiding in a hole

'They rest with wings open', eh?

A few others;

Ringlet

Now I find posing ones!

An illuminating photo

Charcoal underwings

Boo!

"That's Big Boss Skipper, to you, human"

Small Copper.

Pretending to be a skipper!

I've never seen a Small Copper not posing on the deck; they'll feed on flowers, yes, but they sit and wait for victims anything that flies rivals on the ground - nice sunny bare bit usually - even at hot houses like Aish, so seeing this one up high may indicate just how powerful the heat was...

"Oi, Hairstreaks! One; this is how you strike a pose.

Two; come and have a go if you think you're hard enough!"

Common Blue Damselfly, female

Well away from any decent-sized water

Spider sp. plus victim snack

Ah, I did have to work for it, but so so so happy to finally get a clear Hairstreak that's not Green :)


With all this horrid heat seemingly going nowhere, it looks like there'll be more of the same coming up.. But, who's next?



Wait and see.

[I hope]


Be Seeing You...