Butterflies At Sharpenhoe Clappers

After much waiting, I recently got hold of the new Olympus 90mm F3.5 macro lens.  I have been testing out its capabilities on the butterflies at Sharpenhoe Clappers.  So far this month there have been a lot of windy days' and first trip turned out to be one of those.  I struggled to keep things in the frame, let alone in focus.  The second trip was much better. There were plenty on marbled whites on show.

 

 
 

I also found a few other species.  A nice little Green Veined White, and rather scruffy looking examples of a Gatekeeper and a Dark Green Fritillary.

 

 

 

It was only when I started reviewing the pictures that I noticed a red spot on the back of one Marbled White.  This turned out to be a parasitic mite, Trombidium breei.  Apparently these are quite common on Marbled Whites, and some other species, and mostly harmless to the host.

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Royston Heath

On Saturday, I joined a few other CCC members for a visit to Royston Heath in search of flowers and butterflies.  The flowers were White Helleborines.  For butterflies, we found Adonis Blues and Brown Argus.  Quite a colourful day.

Sharpenhoe Clappers

Finally catching up with some photos I took a couple of weeks ago at Sharpenoe clappers.  It was a hot and fairly still day (remember those?).  I got there reasonably early, but the butterflies were already very active. There were lots of Chalkhill Blues, so I finally managed to get a half decent shot of one.