Out In The Sunshine. Again. [Is He Mad?]

Madness such as this is required when chasing flutterbies.

Well, if you're me, anyway.



Having finally found some Woody Goodness, I got things back onto track by chasing a butterfly I'd not photographed before. A rare but very pretty little thing: The Pearl-bordered Fritillary.

Yes, that Quest For The Golden Pearl thing...



And so;

I went to That Fritillary Place - apparently, naming sites for anything online these days is a no-no - and saw what I could see.

That Butterfly Place

Which was one fluttering past before I'd even started parking.

Ah, now that's the kind of search we like.

Oh, there were hordes, heaps, meeeeeellionnns, even. Ok, not millions, but scores is a fair description!

Seeing and getting decent images are not quite the same thing, however, as sometimes they could be a bit too helpful;

He landed right there..

...just too close to use the zoom and keep focus!

But patience and some more patience eventually gave me some slightly better attempts. Yes, here we go again

Laying female

"Do you mind, mate? I'm trying to oviposit here!"

Of course, it wasn't all fun and playing hide and seek with gorgeous butterflies, as I had to avoid the Guardians. Dread Beasts of Terror, forever seeking the flesh of the innocent [and everyone else] to devour..
I speak - in suitably hushed tones - of the Ravening Tigers

"Raaaaaahhrrrrrr!!"

[That's Tiger Beetle for "Don't think you're too big to eat, matey...", btw]

Also Terrors in the air, like this monster

Snipe Fly

Hey, this one used my face for target practice, then having been fended off, sat there and posed like 'You want some more, eh?'

Yeah, so back to the butterflies;

Diagnostic underwing shot

I have far too many of these..

Also a few other butterflies out, such as;

Brimstone

Green Hairstreak

Small Heath

Green-veined White

[other Whites just don't pose the same way]

Pearl-bordered Fritillary

Oh yeah, already did that one.. ;)

I didn't just spend hours ambling about zapping cute little insects, I tried and failed to get decent shots of the Swifts, House Martins and Swallows zipping about overhead. I did get one flying thing

Escaped eagle thing

[Kidding, itsa Buzzard]

And all that looking down, well, there is a short list of what catches my eye and oh yes;

Squill!

Rowan's shade

Fracturelicious

Couldn't hit a 10p on the side of an exposure...

I'll spare you the awful puns that sprang to mind. I'll even spare you much in the way of geological burbling about country rocks, intrusive boundaries, and so on. Also the even worse humour that often goes with all that...

Finally, here's another little treat for you,

ID Test

So what's this, then?

All this fun, and the day wasn't even done, yet.


[Oh no, not another cliffhanger...!]




Be Seeing You...