Fotos

A female Gatekeeper butterfly ( Pyronia tithonus ) seen here feeding on a Creeping Thistle flower . This one was taken in one of the tunnels at work, she was unable to find her way out so I picked a thistle flower and offered it to her , and as you can see it saw accepted and I was both able to take her picture and carry her out to saftey. they tend to run out of energy as not many flowers in the tunnels or some of the local birds things like the pied-wagtails have found that the tunnels are a good source of easy food and regularly spent time picking insects off the inside of the polythene.
How do I know she is female, well her tail end is broad and flat ended and the top surface of the wing is a paler orange, both not seen in the picture view of a male gatekeeper I posted last year .there is also an orange area with a pair of black dota with white spot centres on the hind wing just barely seen here she wouldnt expand it just not frightened enough as eye spots are used to scare preditors away. Should be quiet a common butterfly at this time of the year, to be seeen fluttering up and down country lanes , the name comes from the fact that it likes to perch and wooden gate posts seem to find favour for this purpose, especially if there are Bramble / Blackberry bushes around them,which provide a rich nectare source for them.
adjustments.
saturation+8 lightness -2
contrast +3 brightness +3
sharpen edges - use fade back to 75%
USM 161% X 1.6 radius X threshold 1 -edit-fade back to 75%
crop to 28.22 X 21cm @72dpi
use save for web to optimise file size as close to 200K (190K) as possible.
hope you all like her.