Small Tortoiseshell

Small Tortoiseshell, Leighton Moss, late August.

I was after birdies at the time hence the unusual focal length. The 400 is such a versatile lense.

Techs
1D2N 400mm F5.6L x2 teleconv, ISO640 F14 1/250th, may have stuck an extension tube on, can not remember. Usual processing in Lightroom and CS4, bit of white stem removed.

Comments appreciated

John

Excelent shot John
Takes me back, but then again there was one thrashing at my office window today. Didn't know what to do.
Cheers
JR

Lovely shot John.

A real rarity this year and another one of those beautiful creatures that we take for granted and only realise their true value as they start to disappear. I think I have seen about 6 this year. Really a very nice shot indeed.
Eric

Lovely shot, John, and I have to agree with Eric: don`t think I`ve seen a single Small Tortoiseshell all year.

This is a lovely shot, John.

a very nice image John. Lovely colours and composition. I also saw very few of these this year

Matt

Super shot John, a real beauty

Andy...

That is a lovely shot with any lens, let alone a 400mm + 2x converter. Sadly, like others, I amm only really appreciating the true beauty of this species because I don't see many of them at present.

David

Very nice indeed John. The colours and comp are spot on.

Dave

I really like this shot too

A very attractive and colourful composition of a Butterfly that I used to take for granted but again I haven't seen one of these this year at all. Or a peacock for that matter. A bad season or are they in decline?. However still had plenty of whites laying eggs on my lettuces this year.
I read somewhere recently that the range of most species of Butterfly is moving an average of 6 miles further north each year. More northerly species will be running out of space soon?

I don't think the future is any more or less rosy for butterflies than anything else Larry, but I do know that some species are in serious decline. Hopefully this year will be an aberration and numbers will climb again. Until I really started to get interested in butterflies, I hadn't realised how much their populations vary from year to year. It was only a couple of years ago that a hot summer brought a great influx of humming-bird hawk moths, and clouded yellows neither of which I had ever seen in my garden before. Amazingly these fragile creatures cross the channel in numbers every year just like birds do and even your garden's red admirals are as likely to have come from france as anywhere else, so a bad season here may not be the end of the world; that said the general trend as with everything worth having in this world is down. If you enjoy photographing butterflies, Butterfly Conservation is a worthwhile organisation to support and they have led me to many species that I had only ever read about.
Eric

Really good butterfly photography is as difficult als bird photography.
You did a very good job, John.
A little piece of summer, fine
Bertl

Very nice shot John, lovely colours and I like the flowers. Might take a bit off the right to match the distance from wing to bottom of frame, but no big deal. A dose of sunshine that was much needed, even if only on the computer screen!

An excellent shot. Nice to see it on ragwort, a much maligned plant but essential foraging for many insect species. See

http://www.buglife.org.uk/conservation/currentprojects/ragwort/ragwortfactfile.htm