Hobby and Painted Ladies

Its been a busy spell with local surveys and I am miles behind in uploading images from the late spring summer. Making a start from some of the most recent I went up to see the spectacle of 1000’s of Painted Lady butterflies feeding on fields of Borage on the Lincolnshire Wolds one morning this week and was lucky to see a Hobby feasting on them. Sadly its stay was rather brief but I managed a few images before it went off having had its fill.

It was one of those spectacles that I have never seen before in Britain but capturing the scene and feel of the scene was impossible with a camera and telephoto but these are some of the images where I tried

There were literally 1000’s of butterflies, I counted 1200 in one sweep of the bins but just how many were present is impossible to say

Within a few days they had seemingly gone presumably heading north on the next leg of their amazing journey

I took some perched shots but the day was about movement which is what I tried to capture

At least four pairs of Corn Buntings were also enjoying the short-lived feast

Hobby over the borage field

It was actually a dull and cool start to the morning with a white sky so getting sharp images of the Hobby was a challenge

It was hunting at the top of a big field so some heavy crops - homing in on a Painted Lady

We went back the same evening and the following day but no sign of the Hobby - a lucky break

Wings were quickly discarded and fell to earth

Standard portrait but what a stunning insect

95% of them were in pristine condition and must have eitehr just arrived or hatched locally