Butterflies: the Purple Hairstreak

Purple Hairstreak (Neozephyrus quercus)

This tiny butterfly lives high up in oak trees, but often comes to eat on alder buckthorn, and it never sits on the ground or on low branches. So, this photo required some tree-climbing:

^{Olympus XZ-1, 112mm, ISO100, f8, 1/100s, one-handed}

This photo is at the very edge of dynamic range of the sensor, but it turned out OK.

Here's a photo of one eating:

^{Olympus XZ-1, 112mm, ISO100, f8, 1/200s, one-handed}

Same climbing antics required.