Chalk Skippers

Grizzled Skipper, Pyrgus malvae.  Burnt Gorse, High Elms Country Park, 5 May 2014.

I wasn't looking for this in particular, but for any interesting invertebrates, but I was very happy to see several small brown butterflies flitting around the chalk grassland at High Elms.   When this one landed and I saw that it was a Grizzled Skipper, I was even happier, because I had never been close to one before.   I even got a quick look at its underwing, though not as close to:

Grizzled Skipper, Pyrgus malvae.  Burnt Gorse, High Elms Country Park, 5 May 2014.

I had been expecting a Dingy Skipper, which is rather similar, but has a lighter brown colour and a less patterned underwing:

Dingy Skipper, Erynnis tages.  Burnt Gorse, High Elms Country Park, 5 May 2014.

There were quite a few of these around as well.  Dingies seem to  be more common, usually, but the bank holiday weekend was obviously a good time for Grizzled.

I had a good morning with the camera, though I had difficulties with reflections from shiny-shelled insects.  I had shiny spots from the flash or from the sunlight, whatever I tried.  Here's a leaf beetle that looks like a ladybird, but isn't:

Leaf beetle, Gonioctena viminalis, on Wayfaring-tree, Viburnum lantana.
Burnt Gorse, High Elms Country Park, 5 May 2014.

It was on a Wayfaring-tree, one of our two native Viburnums.  There were small yellow ladybirds on the same bush:

14-spot Ladybird, Propylea quattuordecimpunctata, on Wayfaring-tree, Viburnum lantana.
Burnt Gorse, High Elms Country Park, 5 May 2014.

I also had a try at capturing the essence of a lane in dappled sunlight, lined with Cow-parsley, sometimes more romantically called Queen Anne's Lace.  Though that name is also applied to Wild Carrot, so I don't use it unless I am trying to romanticise the subject.

Lane full of Cow Parsley, Anthriscus sylvestris.  High Elms Country Park, 5 May 2014.

Here the 100mm macro lens is being used in another way, to foreshorten the view so that the further  banks of flowers don't completely disappear into the distance, while at the same time blurring them so that the close ones stand out and you still get a three-dimensional impression.  (I hope!)