Brave Butterfly

It was wonderful to see the sunshine and blue sky this morning after yesterday's stormy deluge. The brave red admirals had weathered it and were on the grapevine again. I couldn't resist photographing them. It will be a long bugless winter.

I usually shoot macro in natural light and at around f11 to maximise the depth of field but decided to use f2.8 today to give a dreamy feel. I love the Persian carpet underwings of the red admiral.

While I was shooting the butterflies I heard, "Chiswick, chiswick." It was a pied wagtail on the ridge of one of the aluminium glasshouses. As I captured it the bird was photobombed by its cousin, a grey wagtail. (Extras) I also captured a worm's-eye-view of a wren. (Extras)