Insects and flowers have been on the menu this weekend

Insects and flowers are parts of the indicator that spring has arrived. I have seen spiders and smaller insects for some time, but last weekend was the first time I saw butterflies. To my surprise it was not the Common brimstone, but an orange species that I didn’t manage to photo.

The Common brimstone is one of the longest lived butterflies, living up to thirteen months. Most of the time is spent in hibernation. It is often the first butterfly you see in the spring, often as early as March here in Sweden. This is when hibernating adults wake up on sunny days. There is a popular myth that it is the Brimstone butterfly which gave us the word butterfly, a corruption of butter-colored fly.

Spring arrive with the Common brimstone

So this weekend was the first time that I got to see a Common Brimstone this year and the same with Bumblebees. These are both two of my favorite insects, together with dragonflies. I will dedicate time this year to hunt both for dragonflies and butterflies and in particular the Common yellow swallowtail. This is a species that I never have seen so I have done research to trying to find suitable habitat around Gothenburg. I think I already know where to look so keep your fingers crossed that I will succeed with this mission.

I will mostly use the new lightweight Nikon AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4E PF ED VR that I bought last autumn for this purpose. This is a versatile lens that I have used for most of my photos of flowers and insects this year. It weighs in at an impressive 755g and has a focusing distance of just 1,4 meter. It takes more or less no effort to handhold this beast of a lens and it works great with the 1,4x converter giving me extra reach when I need it.

Please enjoy my selected photos from the weekend.