NHM: Sensational Butterflies

More satisfying in large ("L").

This afternoon I visited the new "Sensational Butterflies" exhibition at the NatHist: it is a temporary outdoor butterfly house, with hundreds of wonderful butterflies flying free in a very hot and humid tropical habitat.

I had a lovely time, and was surprised by the number of different species on show: there were various types of swallowtails (including this male scarlet swallowtail; it is the female that is scarlet...), blue morphos, malachite butterflies, tree nymphs, and clippers. They show the whole life cycle from eggs to caterpillars to chrysalides to butterflies which is interesting: there is lots of variety at every stage (which made me feel rather glad that I'm not a lepidopterologist). Apparently there will be various other species at different stages of the exhibition, including the enormous atlas moths; the staff reckon that there'll be at least 20 species on show at any one time.

I found the photographic conditions challenging: my lens (obviously) steamed up, but once it had demisted itself the low light was the problem... It was initially quite bright, but almost as soon as we entered the clouds covered the sun making the lighting rather dimmer and not really bright enough for the fast shutter speeds needed for close-ups at the long end of my lens. I did my best, and got quite a few shots with which I was pleased.
I liked this photograph the most overall: I got closer and more colourful photos, but this one has a certain graphic quality that appeals to me.

It was tricky to choose my blip today; I visited Wimbledon Park this morning when it was wonderfully bright and sunny, and I got amusing photos of gulls squabbling for bread (they were pulling off extraordinary aerobatic manoeuvres to get it...), and also of a pair of swans (they might even be the evil "Kray swans" that savaged "my" swan family), AND finally got pictures of the great crested grebes. It was lovely to see them all tufted up in their breeding plumage...