Butterfly - common palmfly

I had an early start at 07:30 at the common. The sky was overcast but the attraction was zero wind, however, once I arrived, that changed. Still, there was plenty of action considering the cool, cloudy start.

Dragons were hitting the ground all around me, so I was able to nail good shots of an orange and a green Sabina. The orange was looking good for the blip right up until the processing, when the butterfly came out much better than I expected.

The butterfly came right at the end of the session, when I went down the steep slope that runs along the back of a building. I don't often go down here as the footing is a bit difficult and too many places for snakes to hide, but I was feeling brave today. The goal is the flowering plant named after the smell of chicken shit, as a fellow blipper informed me a while back. It has very attractive flower heads and attracts a lot of butterflies.

The plant was devoid of butterflies unfortunately, but on the return trek, this exotic purple trimmed butterfly crossed my path and landed deep in the gloom of the undergrowth. I have seen this butterfly a few times at the grove, but it never landed, so this was a great opportunity.

The lighting was very poor and the rim light was not enough to raise the shutter speed to a safe number. I was crouching and so stability was adding to the problem. I took a few slow shutter shots and then took a couple with the flash and cranked the aperture down to F11. I really wasn't expecting anything worth saving but the flash shot came out great and won the day. It looks like a sunlight shot with the shadows, but I am not trying to fool anyone.

Such a shame that she did not open her wings for me, as the top surface is very exotic. You can just about see a hint of the top color around the edge of the wing. Research is now required to identify this specimen. This won't be easy, as most pictures will probably show the top surface. I will update if I find anything.

When I arrived home, I spotted a small very interesting arachnid in my little flower garden and so I cranked up the camera again for another twenty shots. The spider is a bit small for my camera, but could make a blip in the future. It has a very reflective silvery stripe that spoiled the images, but I will get more practice on this subject at my leisure.

Sorry about the late blip, we had a power cut which was not restored until noon.

Update - lymnias hypermnestra agina (Common Palmfly)

Dave