Aug 052010
 

Not been much of note because I seem to have “nabbed” half-reasonable shots of most of the local native species. Two which have proven to be fairly elusive so far this year have been the Red admiral and the Cabbage white. The local Reds seem to not allow humans within 15 feet unless they’re feeding (the Reds, not the humans that is). And Cabbage whites are just so restless that they never seem to sit still long enough even for autofocus to work, let alone manual.

Remember I did manage to nab an underneath shot of a Red admiral before we went to Krakow. That one appeared very young and small. I think it grew a bit now and I managed to get another shot of it in the rotten fruit patch.

Red admiral, Vanessa atalanta

Red admiral, Vanessa atalanta

There’s another, larger one, that likes to hang out in the sunny corners of the garden. I managed to sneak up on that one as well today.

Red admiral, Vanessa atalanta

Red admiral, Vanessa atalanta


You can see the two are not the same one because the wing damage is different on each.

And just after doing that, I saw a couple of flashes of white on the apple tree. Two Cabbage whites courting, by the look of it. Well I managed three shots before I scared them off. 😀

Cabbage white, Pieris brassicae

Cabbage white, Pieris brassicae


I’ve also got a Common blue and a couple of interesting views of a small tortoiseshell to come. These were shote a few days ago but I’ve been trying to focus on other things this week. (Pun intended).

Jul 222010
 

Having seen endless peacocks, speckled woods, ringlets, cabbage whites, and meadow browns in the garden in Zgierz (I even saw what looked like a swallowtail fying quite high up one day 😎 ), today marked the first sighting of a Red Admiral. They like cherries. This one was first seen heading for the cherry tree, where I soon scared it by getting too close. After that (s)he headed over to the compost area to find some rotting apples which fell off the tree. But the closest shot I got was after eating some apple, it headed into a tree to roost at about a foot above my head height and upside down. Light was bad, so I used the pop-up onboard flash. Unusual angle, but good facial and outside wing detail – and we’ve all seen Red Admirals before anyway. 😉

Red Admiral - Vanessa atalanta

And this moth was seen in the woods on the way back from a session at the lake yesterday evening. No idea what it is.

No idea what this moth is