I got in the garden today with my camera in an attempt to capture some wildlife. It turned out to be an interesting day starting with a frog. He sat still for along time. Long enough for me to swap lenses and put on the macro lens! He is looking a bit thin. Perhaps his days are numbered?
Next up the ongoing battle to try to capture a decent shot of a bee........ and still failing! At least he is healthy. Never stopped still for a second as usual.
Then I was on the look out for a butterfly. Not many around today, or most did not stay long enough to photograph them. Then what I would describe as a Red Admiral flew in and landed on our pond. I thought this was a more unusual shot for a butterfly, rather than one on a plant, so took a few shots.
Then I noticed the Waterboatmen moving in on the butterfly! 3 are closing in!!
And here one is actually on the edge of the butterfly. This called for desperate action!
I reached for our pond net and managed to gently pull the butterfly towards the edge of the pond.
It sat here for ages....... long enough for me to get a couple of shots. Then it folded it's wings tight. After a few minutes, I give it a gentle prod with my finger, and it opened and closed it wings, but still did not move. I had to go out for an hour , so set up my GoPro camera out of interest, so that I would know it had safely flown off once it had dried out. I came back to find it still there. I gave it another gentle prod and it fell back in the pond! At that point I lost it. As I write this blog, I have just popped back into the garden out of curiosity and the butterfly was floating on the pond. I pulled it in with the net, but this time, no sign of life. I decided the Waterboatmen need their food too, so returned my butterfly to the pond.
A very emotional day!
