In which I headed over to the East Devon Commons to perform my annual pilgrimage in search of the Blessèd Silver-studded Blue [having failed awfully the weekend before.. Ahem]
Reader, I had a mare.
Lots of Horseflies found me, and it was running combat at times [me running, that is..], but my Pet Spot, where I've found SSB for many many years.. Drew a blank.
Bugger.
So I headed out to try to find somewhere else. Somewhere a small, low-flying, oft-resting, elusive and always scarce butterfly might be found.
It was hard yards, and in heat and humidity, too. Of course.
I did find the SSB's tag team partner - again with difficulty, as people seem to think that dragonfly pools on nature reserves are the right place to encourage big fat Brown Labs to jump in [FFS] - and this is the thumbnail;
Small Red Damselfly
Not very photogenic, perhaps, but shot at a tricky angle through a lot of vegetation [as oh yes, DWT seem to be allowing their favourite pool to vegetate over...]
Small Red Damselfly is not a big flashy obvious insect. They tend to stay low and sit around a lot. But if you take the time to find the things look carefully, you'll see they're quite lovely.
At this point, I was going to stick a load of 'all the other stuff' up and keep you waiting until the end - which is what I had to do, after all - but instead we'll get to the fun bit.
You are walking along a track on a heath. You need to keep eyes up for passing birds, eyes about for other birds, eyes down and to the side for the butterflies you are after, and eyes behind you for that HorseflyAAARGH... You also need to watch where you're walking, and even more carefully for the twenty feet you are about to walk, in case there's something there you're about to flush.
So, can you see what I saw?
Snapshot.
I have learned the very very hard way to shoot as soon as physically possible. You might get something awful, but that beats nothing by an infinite margin.
Oh, what I could have gloated ab the sights I have seen what I might have shown you..
Ahem.
Getting back to the point;
I then circled very slowly and carefully right to get an angle for a better picture.
It flew. Right as I was squeezing the BLEEPing shutter, it flew.
I followed.
Another snapshot.
Bit better.
You can see it now, I hope.
Hit the zoom, boy.
Silver-studded Blue
It flew again, I followed again, and never mind the Brambles and Gorse.
I just couldn't get an angle;
"Oh, you little blue
sod, you..."
..and then it was up and gone gone gone.
Still, it saved the day. Yes, lovely SRD, and yes, this wasn't bad either
The stuff of battleships'
nightmares.
😁
But I mentioned a lot of other photos, didn't I?
Large Skippers in numbers, at least.
Green Hairstreak, either side of the light. Annoyingly mobile, but worth it.
Cinnabar Moth!
Worth kneeling on a Bramble for.
[Knees heal, photos are forever!]
Keeled Skimmer
Remember I said about looking up?
Here's a reason why.
Sprawk!
And to look down?
Time for wasps!
Darwin Wasp sp.
Digger wasp sp.
Different Digger sp.
Digger sp.1; m and f
Flower Bee
Yellow-face Bee sp.
[not all have yellow faces]
Grey-tailed Furrow Bee
So tiny! So cute!
[So hard to keep up with, she was all over this Heather, as you can perhaps tell]
At least I can ID with confidence.
[[Comment saying "Oh no you can't.." in 3, 2,...]]
Flies!
[Flies?]
Things that fly.
[::Whistles innocently::]
Hot, frequently frustrating, but there were moments. Oh, there were moments.
Be Seeing You...
