Hi all
I'm sitting here in Dave and Esme Edge's living room after a great morning taking photos in Brenton-on-Sea. At long last I got down here in decent weather. Tacked on a weekend to a business trip.
It wasn't easy - I took Friday off and Dave kindly picked me up at PE airport, because Kulula.com is the order of the day now and the firm wouldn't pay for an SAA flight to George. And then, every big customer we have started calling my Blackberry with technical problems. One was just as I was photographing (or trying to) a male
Orachrysops niobe (Brenton Blue). I nearly threw the thing into the sea!
When we got there, we immediately found the butterflies patrolling up and down the paths Dave has made. The males would not sit still but we got this lovely female sitting.
Everything after this was a battle, with that blasted Blackberry ringing all the time. Eventually the sea mist came in and I went and drank beer with Brian and Margaret Young, whose house backs onto the reserve and allows them to keep an eye on the butterfly for Dave. They must be the only people in SA who get Brenton Blues in their back garden!
We went to the Knysna Yacht Club for dinner with Dave and Esme and their daughter Nadine, and Bernard and Adeline Turlin who are also staying here. After a nice supper of chicken schnitzel and salad (I was naughty and had some chips, and a pint of Bosuns Bitter - but I had been exercising all day...) we went to a raucous place called the Oystercatcher, but Dave and I were feeling a bit jaded after the early start and all the driving. So we had one drink and ducked back home, which is a good thing because hangovers are not good for butterfly photography!
This morning (Saturday 6 March) I woke to... cloud. Was this the Cruel Cape all over again? So we had a leisurely breakfast and started looking at pix of last weekend's trip (not Dave - he was off at 0530hrs to run in a race, the masochist). Eventually at 1000hrs the sun began to burn through the mist, and Bernard and I hied ourselves to the reserve. This time, we were more successful. I managed to get a shot of a male (these would NOT sit still for an upperside shot
) but the pic isn't a bad one:
The females were far more obliging, and as the sun started to break through the mist we found this beauty sunning herself. Bernard and I took several shots; here are two of mine:
I also got some more nice underside shots:
We found this one female with a broken wingtip who was more confiding than the rest - I called her 'Mrs Tatty Wingtip':
She was just about getting to the 'finger shot' stage when Dave returned to take me to Uitsicht, the
Aloeides thyra orientis (Eastern Red Copper) spot. I got this one shot of the one little male who was sitting there:
Enjoying this view of Buffalo Bay:
And Brenton-on-Sea:
Thanks for looking!
Cheers
Steve
