More shots from the garden. The butterflies are plentiful at the moment, finally getting to enjoy the summer weather. I spotted this red admiral resting towards the end of the day.

Tonight provided one of the more unusual examples of mating ritual. I’ve photographed this a number of times in the past, but it continues to fascinate. Leopard slugs are hermaphroditic, and both slugs will impregnate the other. To mate, they suspend themselves from a bungee rope which they attach to a wall (or suitable branch), and then entwine. The sex organs then emerge and wrap together forming a translucent fringed bell. Just a couple of shots from a longer sequence.

And finally, a fox. Their behaviour has changed recently. The cubs are dispersing, and the adults are appearing singly rather than as a group. Sightings are less frequent, but Red seems still to be around and was happy to sample the water we leave out.

Camera note: all shots taken with the Canon 7D and EF 24-105 F4L IS USM lens.

This is my first proper blog attempt on the WordPress site. You can expand the images by clicking on them. I’ll attempt to play around with the image settings in future posts. This small selection of butterflies was photographed on the South Downs yesterday.

First up is a gatekeeper, identified via the two small white dots in the main eye-spot on the fore-wing.

And a pair of them mating…

Next is a meadow brown. This has only one white dot in the eye-spot on the wing.

The marbled white is always a very pretty butterfly to see, and they are doing well this year.

Adding a touch of colour are the small skippers.

The final shots aren’t butterflies. These are six-spot burnets, a common variety of day-flying moths.

To close, another very familiar sight (if look closely for them). Red soldier beetles, caught in the act (they seemingly do nothing else).

Camera note: all shots taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens or EF 100mm f/2.8L macro IS USM lens.

Just a very quick test as I have now imported all my MyOpera entries over to here. Plus a quick pic to make it worthwhile.