Delight and Despair

Bigger Speckled Wood.

The Delight: Today was my last chance for a while to find that elusive butterfly from 2 days ago in the grounds of County Hall - I'm now officially on 2 weeks leave! Whoopeeeeee! And, though overcast at first, today''s been mostly hot sunshine (though rather windy as usual). I'm praying it stays like this (with a little less wind please) for the next 2 weeks! So off I went to the area where I'd seen the butterfly - and lo and behold I very soon spotted it, not too far from where I'd seen it the other day. This time it was much more co-operative and at last I managed to get a shot of it. And yes, as I suspected, it's a Speckled Wood. A real treat for me, as it's one I've rarely seen in the past and certainly never blipped.

After happily getting the shot of the Speckled Wood I walked a little way to the clump of Mallow where I'd found the Large Skipper which I blipped that day, and managed another shot of one, looking a totally different colour in the sun. (What's the betting that Roy's going to tell me I'm a numpty again and this time it's NOT a Large Skipper! lol)

The Despair: Almost opposite the Mallow is the bush I'd found many insects on the other day when I blipped the Large Skipper. Suddenly a large brown dragonfly came into sight, and settled on the end of a branch on the bush, low and close to me, the sun glinting off its wings. I managed to slowly approach and get a shot of it, close up. Couldn't believe my luck - a Speckled Wood AND a dragonfly within a short space of time of each other! I proceeded on my way and stopped to snap some pics of a striking large metallic fly on some Ragwort, then suddenly 'Memory full'. Last night I'd had to recharge the camera, had removed my SD card and put it into my laptop to sort my blip - then forgot to put the card back in! So I quickly went through the 12 pics which the on-board memory stores, deleting several so I could take a few more shots of the fly. BIG mistake - when I got back to the office and looked at what I had, I suddenly realised that I'd mistakenly deleted the shot of the dragonfly!
I have some data retrieval software which usually works well, but on trying to salvage the pic of the dragonfly when I got home, it had obviously been overwritten by the later shots I'd taken of the fly - which were rubbish anyway. Damn, damn, damn! I just KNOW that was a good, clean macro and I'm really, really pissed off annoyed with myself for being so careless :((
Oh well, c'est la vie n'est ce pas!

It's Friday, I'm now off work for 2 weeks and tomorrow, if arrangements still stand, I'll be meeting up for the first time with a pal I've made over the last 2-3 years via Friends of Nature, Springwatch and Facebook. She and her other-half live not too far from me, and we've arranged a day in Thetford Forest - prime blipping territory and a place I love but haven't been to for a few years. So all being well I should have something great to blip tomorrow!

Have a great Friday y'all xx