Monday 11 July 2011

Stiperstones - Grayling

One of the ‘disappeariing’ inland species of Butterfly is Grayling but Shropshire still maintains a small colony here and there. An evening walk at one or two locations near Snailbeach and the The Bog turned up two males

A quirky and charismatic butterfly, it is actually quite easy to photograph – once you’ve found the little blighters! Almost inevitably found when flushed, they need to be watched carefully as they dart about and then relocated stealthily bearing in mind they simply melt into their surroundings of rock and gravel.

Not a lot of variety of poses are possible, Graylings always sit with their wings closed. Here’s the first one.....







Deciding to show me his wing spot!






Even on rock of dissimilar colour like this quartz, the wing pattern blends in!






The second individual was using the wing spot to take on a red ant – it didn’t work (the ant was untroubled!)






Close up of the cryptic camouflage!






Nearby in the grassy areas were a few Small Heath, as with Grayling - never opening those wings!






As for Grayling, I suppose the challenge is to get an open wing shot, a challenge for another day - hmm how am I going to do this