Tuesday 2 August 2011

A Flutter Through Friday Woods


My hubs is the outdoor type. Not the kind of Bear Grylls level, but he likes to be out and about. Yesterday he set me and our daughter a challenge - to take a photo of a dragonfly while traipsing through a local woodland. I'm not in the least competitive, but she is! So off we went with cameras at the ready and the two younger boys in tow.
 Common Centaury
I'm not really a pink girl, but I thought these little flowers were pretty, and the local butterflies were being too unsettled for a photo. And then I got lucky.
The Small Copper isn't especially rare, but it's the first time I've gotten a photo. It did cost me two rips in my favourite skirt due to brambles, and I stuck my foot in a patch of stinging nettles. Ow.
A slightly tatty Speckled Wood.
Large White.
Small Skipper. Do you know how I know this is a Small Skipper and not an Essex Skipper, being as we are IN Essex? The ends of its antennae are orange. That's the ONLY difference! If it wasn't for my fab camera, I wouldn't have been able to see that.

As is normal for these little excursions, my hubs got us lost. I don't know WHY I still let him navigate when I know the consequences. But there you go. A short walk turned into a longer one, but we made it back within sight of the car park in the end. And on the way, my daughter won.
(Well, strictly speaking this is a damselfly not a dragonfly but shhhhh! I won't tell if you don't.)
Common Blue Damselfly