Comma Galore

At this stage the Comma Butterfly on the wing is the mid-summer variety having emerged at the beginning of July. These are fine specimens and make nice images to shoot.

Banded Demoiselle Damselfly

The Banded Demoiselle is quite striking in colour and approximately 45mm in length.

 The male in particular especially when flying, shows off with its fluttering display in front of the female. They can be found near slow flowing streams and rivers from May to August.

As for trying to photograph them, they are very flighty and not easy to approach.

Male

Male

Female

Female

Chalkhill Blue Butterfly

The Chalkhill Blue is I think, one of the most striking in colour and pattern of the small Blues. 

Its main population is restricted to Southern England, it can only be found in one or two places higher up the country. Fortunately one of those places is quite close to my location in the Northern part of East Anglia and its one of my 'Target' images each year. I am pleased to report that when I shot these images, I observed a considerable number of Chalkhills at that location.

Although both relatively small as butterflies go, the males are larger than the females with a wingspan of 38mm. They can be found on the wing between mid July to mid September.

Male

The female Chalkhill Blue as shown below can at times be confused with the female Adonis Blue and close comparison is necessary.

Female

Female

Male

Silver-washed Fritillary (2)

The first time I have been able to capture Silver-washed Fritillary mating.

Here are some near misses, but excuse the poor quality of the images.

This is what happens when you are lining up a shot of one still butterfly and another suddenly flies into the camera view, consequently you don't have the right setting to capture the speed of butterfly wings.

Silver-washed Fritillary (1)

2012 was an awful year for butterflies. Cold weather and continuous torrential rainfall at crucial periods in the life cycle meant that many species suffered and the numbers were reduced considerably

At a local Nature Reserve previous to 2012, I had observed the Silver-washed Fritillary in small numbers. However, I couldn't find any at that location last year and feared the worse for this species there.

Yesterday during what was one of the hottest days of the year I took a walk around that Reserve particularly in the more wooded areas. It wasn't necessary to do much searching as the species was everywhere and in areas I had not seen it previously. So this is an encouraging sign for this species and it has certainly recovered in that area. If this species, which is quite rare this far up the country, can recover like this then others may also.

Male

Female

Male

Female

Male

Female

Male

Female

Male

Female

Male 

Female

Male

Female

Male

Female