Flickr: _astralis' Photostream

Purple Hairstreak

This one was taken in July on the Warwickshire BC branch trip to Oversley Wood. Though the trip was primarily for the Purple Emperor, over 40 people turned up in the hopes of seeing a variety of other species, including Silver-washed Fritillary, White Admiral, White-letter Hairstreak and Purple Hairstreak. This beautiful specimen had just emerged and was warming itself up in the morning sunshine. Its not often you see these butterflies up close as they tend to spend the majority of their time flying around the tops of Oak trees. This image was actually half backlit which ive managed to tone down a bit. However, the butterfly was still partly in the shade and i was working with a slow shutter speed so the detail isn't as good as it could've been. But its not half bad and im not expecting to get a better shot anytime soon :) Hope you all like!

Visit My Blog | Follow Me On Twitter | BC Warwickshire Twitter | BC Warwickshire
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© Gillian Thompson 2011 (eorlingas@gmail.com).
This image is not to be used, copied or edited without my written permission.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Uploaded on Nov 3, 2011 | Map

15 comments

Herby

Another shot of iris from my trip to Savernake Forest last Sunday. Im trying to do one more close up shot of the face/top half but i dont have many photos to work with as it was ridiculously windy that day. I like the angle of this one as you can see the prominent black hairs (they're more like spikes!) and the yellow sticky-uppy bit. Does anyone know what this is and its purpose? I really have no idea.

The next couple of months are going to be ridiculously hectic at work for me (yes, i work in retail - yay!). But despite this, im really going to try harder to upload my photos more regularly. I have hundreds to sort through and post-process. I have many more locations to survey for Brown Hairstreak eggs which will be ongoing throughout the winter and i am also writing an article for the Warwickshire BC branch magazine which will be printed in Feb/March. Who knows when ill get round to starting it!

Visit My Blog | Follow Me On Twitter | BC Warwickshire Twitter | BC Warwickshire
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© Gillian Thompson 2011 (eorlingas@gmail.com).
This image is not to be used, copied or edited without my written permission.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Uploaded on Oct 28, 2011 | Map

6 comments

Meet Herbert

When Matthew Oates invited me along to Savernake Forest in Wiltshire on Sunday to check on some of the Purple Emperor larvae hes been monitoring there this year, i jumped at the chance. I'd never seen these incredible creatures in the wild before - they are so blimmin' hard to find! Over the last couple of years, ive been monitoring adult iris at Oversley Wood and they are truly fascinating butterflies. I spent some time searching the sallows for hibernating larvae earlier this year without success so to finally be able to see these little guys was quite possibly a once in a lifetime opportunity.

I also invited Phil Corley along though i dont think he was too impressed with the early morning :) We spent most of the day admiring these gorgeous caterpillars, taking photos, grilling Matthew and (in Matthew's case) climbing up a ladder into the sallows :) You wouldn't think a caterpillar could have so much character but believe me, these guys do. Never seen anything like them! My knowledge was put to the test when Matthew took us to the monument area (an iris hotspot) and asked me to locate the male congregation area and their favourite perches. I passed both tests with flying colours so ive obviously learnt something over the last 2 years :) We saw 5 larvae altogether yesterday but 2 others have disappeared so they might've been "crunched" :(

Purple Emperor eggs are laid on the upperside of sallow leaves and hatch after about 9-10 days, depending on the weather. After the first moult, the caterpillar looks like the one above with those very unique "horns". The larvae at this time of year are no more than 1.5cm long (likely smaller) and are often found resting on a self-spun silk pad at the tip of a sallow leaf. I believe the top half of the body is raised from the surface of the leaf to help minimise the amount of visible shadow. How they know how to do this is beyond me! When the leaves begin to fall, the larvae go in search of a hibernating spot on the branches where they will spend the remainder of the winter before becoming active again in April. None of the larvae we saw on Sunday had started to properly colour up yet ready for hibernation. If they hibernate on a branch, they usually turn a brownish/greyish colour. Those that hibernate next to buds are often red/brown/yellow and usually dont survive as they are so easy to spot. I love the Tit family, dont get me wrong, but they love to chomp on these poor caterpillars and especially like eating Brown Hairstreak eggs/larvae too. CURSE THEM!

All in all, a fantastic day out. Thanks again to Phil for letting me use his incredible Canon MP-E. I have a few more shots im hoping to post, depending on how they look after post-processing so stay tuned :) A full report from the day and more photos will be up on my blog (link below) very soon and also on The Purple Empire. Also, lots more updates on the Warwickshire Brown Hairstreak egg searching to come.

Visit My Blog | Follow Me On Twitter | BC Warwickshire Twitter | BC Warwickshire
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© Gillian Thompson 2011 (eorlingas@gmail.com).
This image is not to be used, copied or edited without my written permission.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Uploaded on Oct 25, 2011 | Map

9 comments

Striated Heron

Another change from butterflies :) I went to Egypt a couple of weeks ago and two of these beautiful herons decided to drop by on my last day. I'd just decided to have one final trip to the beach to get some quick photos before leaving when i spotted them. At first, i only saw the male. He was so well camouflaged that i actually didnt see him until i was practically on top of him and he flew off. Not far though. Only to some dead coral in the shallow sea. At the time, i didnt have my aqua shoes with me so i had to wade all the way out in my flip flops and try and navigate over all the dead coral. Not an easy task! As i got closer, i realised he had a companion (photo above)! Im guessing this one is female. She was perched quite contentedly on her rock and didnt seem bothered when i got closer. The male (im assuming) was a lot more skittish and flew over to another rock closeby. He appeared to be the "fisher" but i dont think he had much success! All he managed was some seaweed which he promptly spat out again. Meanwhile, i'd managed to get within 1 metre of this female and she had barely moved. She posed beautifully for an hour :) In this shot, she had just regurgitated something and was in the process of licking her beak afterwards. Disgusting, LOL! I thought a portrait shot would be a good one to upload first. Those eyes are stunning! This is certainly one of those moments i will remember for a long time. Its not often you can get this close to nature in the wild!

Im not that knowledgeable about birds but from my research, i believe this is a juvenile Striated Heron. Please correct me if im wrong! I'd be interested to know if this is a female and if the other is male. This one had a more speckled breast whereas the "male" was a bit plainer looking.

Thanks to all of my dedicated commenters. I really love you guys. I will hopefully get round to commenting on your streams soon. All of my spare time at the moment is being spent looking for Brown Hairstreak eggs in Warwickshire. Im trying to determine the overall distribution of this rare butterfly but its a lot of hard work and we just dont have enough man power to search everywhere. However, we've found a couple of new locations in Warks and there have been some excellent discoveries just inside the Worcestershire border. Things are looking up :)

Information: Striated Heron
Technical: 1/400 | f/9 | 100mm | ISO200
Camera/Lens: Canon EOS 500D | Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 L IS USM

Visit My Blog | Follow Me On Twitter | BC Warwickshire Twitter | BC Warwickshire
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© Gillian Thompson 2011 (eorlingas@gmail.com).
This image is not to be used, copied or edited without my written permission.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Uploaded on Oct 8, 2011 | Map

15 comments

The Sea Urchin

Apologies, first of all. Ive been gone for quite a while! Despite being busy with my Brown Hairstreak egg searching (which ive started really early this year), ive been on a photography break. But i couldn't pass up the opportunity to shoot the incredible Brown Hairstreak eggs with Phil Corley's Canon MPE lens setup. We met up on Sunday at Ryton Wood Meadows where im doing some extensive egg searching and spent a fun day taking photos, counting eggs, complaining about equipment being too heavy (me), cursing continuously (me), getting attacked by bramble and toppling over (Phil), and also getting stabbed numerous times by the Blackthorn. I have to admit, even though ive drooled over the MPE in the past, its a hefty bugger to use, especially when you have the flash and diffuser attached! Not sure id cope using it too often. This was the best shot of the day. Luckily, it only consisted of layering 2 frames. The sharpening took a while to get right and its by no means perfect but im fairly happy with it :) It shows off that incredible structure quite nicely. Please view large for the ultimate experience ;)

As for my photography break, its continuing indefinitely until i get my inspiration back. I feel like ive had a horrendous year photographing butterflies (mostly because of the weather) and im just fed up now. Cant even be bothered to work on my photos! The Brown Hairstreak egg searching is going to take up most of my time now until March. There have been some exciting discoveries over the past couple of months. The Warwickshire/Worcestershire border searching has already begun and although eggs have yet to be found on the Warwickshire side, good quantities of eggs have been found just 500m from the border. An assembley tree has also been discovered close by, thanks to the Big Ash Bash. Im doing some independent research at Ryton Wood Meadows and the surrounding areas this winter and ive learned so much already. Im really determined to try and get a better idea of the distribution of Brown Hairstreak in Warwickshire. Ive collected lots of data so far and it is certainly proving to be a very interesting project! My blog is once again being updated with news of my recent adventures. Eventually, ill get round to blogging about my trips earlier in the year. Really hoping to get a butterly photo uploaded on here soon, LOL! Im going to Egypt for a week on September 15th so perhaps October might be the month i get my inspiration back :)

Visit My Blog | Follow Me On Twitter | BC Warwickshire Twitter | BC Warwickshire
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© Gillian Thompson 2011 (eorlingas@gmail.com).
This image is not to be used, copied or edited without my written permission.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Uploaded on Sep 7, 2011 | Map

12 comments