A day in the garden with Gatekeepers
It was a lovely sunny Wednesday morning...
The ladies were nice and calm, letting me get close and gently fanning their wings. The male on the other hand, now warn and active, was just flying around, finding a leaf and bathing, and flew off whenever I got close.
After getting some images of the females, and the sun warming up, I sat back for a bit and enjoyed watching. Soon a Meadow Brown and a couple of Whites got used to me being there and settled on flowers nearby. Busy Bee's at work and the sound of some Grasshoppers rubbing..... AHHH... Lovely....
After a while, I noticed the male was flying around the Flowers, and showing some interest in the females. This was my chance to get some action shots. Now I have to say, I'm not very good at this, and my Sigma 105 lens is not very fast. So cranking up the ISO and shutter speed, my basic approach was to 'Press and Pray'...
Burst after burst, I just couldn't get a nice shot of the male above the female. With my settings getting close to max, I sat back to think. "What am I doing wrong ??"...
It was then I noticed the male was doing something strange. I assumed he was approaching in order to try and mate, but instead of hovering before attempting to land, he was literally dive bombing the females and flying off for another pass.
Now I don't know why he was doing it, Maybe Hareem behaviour ??. The females weren't lifting their abdomens to indicate they had already mated, but he wasn't being gentle. The yellow spikes on Echinacea cones are firm and sharp, and must have been unpleasant. Still, as we all know, nature is what nature does, so I let them do their thing. More practice for me...
This set of images below, shows you what he was doing.....
Thankfully, his energy started to wane, and he began to settle down and feed giving the females a rest. Giving me a chance to have a rest too...
If I would give ONE TIP it would be, BE PAITIENT. If you are not getting the shots, don't give up.... The good thing with digital cameras is you can take pictures in bursts all day. The pictures above are just one set of many that had none in focus, or missed the pass completely. The other thing with not giving up is the rewards. As the male began to settle more, I was able to get some SIDE BY SIDE shots. Who knows, it could make a nice comparison shot for a web page....
