It’s been super warm this summer in southern England, really the longest hot spell I can remember like this since my childhood and the summer of 1976.  Plus I’ve been super busy at work and have had less time to get out photographing.  Consequently, this morning I took the dog out for a walk and grabbed the camera with no real hopes of seeing much of interest; not least because walking with the dog tends to massively reduce the chance of not disturbing wildlife of any type.  But you never know.  Just wandering along I managed to see two species across the meadows and in the wood that I’ve not photographed before.  Here they are. 

First, the ‘Four-Spotted Chaser’ dragonfly that was engaged in a bit of territory defending across the meadow.  This is one of our duller looking ‘chaser’ dragonflies but is quite distinctive on account of the double spots on each wing.  Its hard to tell male and female apart as both are brown with very similar markings.  However, I think I’m going to call this as a male on account of its behaviour and the slightly turned out anal appendages (not so obvious on this particular photo).  

The second newly photographed species of the day was a White Admiral butterfly. Again, differentiation of the species is a bit difficult but I think this is a male (antennae are yellow tipped).  Really good to see this butterfly as they are not that common and don’t tend to be seen in high densities when they are around.  I found this one in a, literally, guide book description place “best looked for in sunny glades in deciduous woodland of oaks…most frequently seen when feeding on patches of brambles” (spot the leaf it’s resting on). A fine elegant butterfly on the wing too.  

Gear: Nikon D500 with 300mm f/4E PF lens and 1.4 teleconverter (420mm).  A very handy combination for wandering about with and taking photos of larger insects like these.