Photographs

Painted Lady

The influx of Painted Ladies still continues, on the first this one was in the garden, in good nick and with open wings, beautiful.

Painted lady

I think this is going to go on all summer, but I must stop taking their photos or I will need to buy some extra memory for the lap top.

Broad Bodied Chaser

For a few years our messy wild life pond has produced dragonflies emerging every spring but last winter it was cleaned out and sadly we lost all of the larvae, so no emergencies until next year at the soonest.

Broad Bodied Chaser

Last year it was so overgrown we did not see any female dragons laying eggs, so although we will miss out this year I hope next year makes up for it.

Broad Bodied Chaser

Fortunately there are a few other ponds in surrounding gardens so I hope it dosen't affect local nubers.

Broad Bodied Chaser

On the second this one turned up and remained around the pond all afternoon, often landing on the shrubs around the pond, and sometimes flying off for a while.

Broad Bodied Chaser

This was a male in his pale blue livery, we more often see the golden females.

Black hairstreak

On the 9th the weather forcast showed a sunny but blustery afternoon after what had been a rainy few days, which gave us a window to try to see one of our most elusive butterflies, the black hairstreak.

Black hairstreak

This butterfly highlights the difficulty of butterfly watching, it only has a flight period of 3 weeks during early to mid June, and each individual only lasts a short time, it spends much of it's life flying around the tops of it's favoured scrubby trees.

Black hairstreak

If you want to see one you have to find a day when the weather is sunny during the 3 week flight period, know exactly which area to look in and hope one has come down low to feed so you can take a photo.

Black hairstreak

In the UK they are only to be seen in Northants, Oxon, Berks and Cambridgeshire, they are small, 34 to 40 mm wing span and quite dull in colour until they can be seen up close.

Black hairstreak

All the points against seeing one are countered for me because living in Aylesbury thre are a few sites within half an hours drive where, with a bit of luck they can be seen. My favourite place for them is Hewins wood 20 minutes away.

Black hairstreak

We have been to this site, near Quaintion, 3 years running and never faile to get some nice views, but this year was spectaculerly good we must have seen at least 20, very often down low and feeding on privet flowers.

Black hairstreak

There was even one perched on the tail gate of my car, where it sat for a few minutes. Hewins wood is in a very quiet lane between Quainton and Edgcot, we were there a couple of hours and there were no other visitors, not even dog walkers, the car was parked in a little layby right next to the hedge that the hairstreaks frequented.

Black hairstreak

Though the blustery wind was a bit of an issue for photography it was a blessing in disguise, the butterflies seemed total unaware if I touched the twig they were perched on, I was even able to turn the flowers so that the subject was into the sun, I guess they could not tell me from the wind.

Beautiful demoiselle

When ever we go to see the hairstreaks at this site there is always some other interesting insects to see, this time it was our most attractive damsel fly the beautiful demoiselle, this is a male, they are more usually found in the south and west of Britain

Beautiful demoiselle

This is a female just as beautiful, just different. There are two demoiselles in the UK both have metalic blue bodies and are absolutely stunning.

Comma

The 13th was warm and sunny following some wet weather so we decided to return to Incombe Hole to try to find more marsh frittllaries, the last time we went, 22nd of May was thought to be too early we only saw three.

Comma

Strangely, we did not see any, the distance between the two periods was less than the flight pariod so if the first trip was too early the second visit could not have been too late.

Comma

In fact we did not see many butterflies at all, but we did find this pristine comma.

Comma

This is a rather underated butterfly, it can be seen for much of the season and is a striking bright sighting if it is not too old and worn out.

Chimney sweeper moth

This day flying moth cn be seen on chalk downland in June and July, we only saw one but Incombe hole is an ideal site for them.

Chimney sweeper moth

It is quite small and delicate and almost jet black. It was getting really battered by the brisk wind.

Dark green frittillary

The best butterfly of the visit was just one Dark Green Frittillary a large beautiful orange and black species.

Dark green frittillary

It was perched quite high so very hard to get a photo of, I hoped when it moved it would pose in a more accessible place, it didn't, it flew off with the wind behind it never to be seen again.

Stonechat

When ever I visit Incombe to see butterflies, bird line up to have their photos taken, but I don't have a telephoto lens with me, last time a corn bunting, this time a family of stonechats.

Stonechat

A family group of 3 young and the male and female were moving through the scrub making the noise from which they get their name, it sounds like two pebbles being knocked together, it is their contact call that keeps them together.

Stonechat

The previous photo was the female and this one the male.

Stonechat

This is one of the birds that are doing well in the UK right now, their numbers are increasing and there are now about 60 K breeding pairs.

Common blue

When freshly emerged the common blue is very pretty, but this one had certainly been around a bit.

Common blue

We did see one or two common blues, this was the only one that sat still for me, but it was extremely tatty.