A few weekends ago I went to Rainham Marshes where a friend of mine had organised a pond dip session. We found plenty but 2 species were of interest to me. The first was this saucer bug. You can see the front legs which have been modified into a prey grabbing pincer. I also got…
I had a quick dip in a pond at Wat Tyler CP this evening just before the sun had set. And when I say quick I mean I put the net in the water just the once! Along with a diving beetle larva was a small newt: I thought it was rather small for a…
A few weeks ago I found an alderfly larva in the bottom mud of a pond. They tend to be found in and on the pond bottom. They are quite distinctive with their many gill filaments on the abdomen and the pair of pincers at the front. They can sometimes be found crawling through weed…
A few weekends ago I popped into Wildwood Trust near Canterbury, which is a wildlife park of UK animals. They are a big part of the beaver reintroduction scheme here in the UK, and have a few on site as part of their breeding programme. While I was there, ice had formed on their pond…
When you take up wildlife photography there are certain bird species you want to photograph. Hoopoes are on most people’s lists, if hard to get in the UK. Bitterns are another and one, I’ve only photographed twice and not particularly well. Another is the bearded tit or reedling. I had seen them at Rainham before…
The last from the productive pond dip photography session. I got my best over of a few more species: Cloen dipterum Mayfly nymph. Agraylea multipunctata Micro caddisfly larva And wandering pond snail.
Carrying on from my last post, the pond photography session gave me my best ever hawker dragonfly nymph. I got it from various angles, including these two in which you can really see that mask or labium they use to catch prey, under slung below the head. I also got a top down shot. I…
Some more pond photos for last December. I got my best shots of a Haliplus sp. crawling water beetle. Including one swimming. I also got among my best at least of water lice.
Way back in November 2010 I went looking for leaping salmon at Levens in Cumbria. I glimpsed one but while there I photographed this heron standing near a waterfall. With it standing so still I tried to slow shutter speed shots. I also tried a slower shutter with the water fall. And even slower In…
Here are some photos from a morning walk around Wat Tyler Country park. The highlight was a greenfinch eating a sycamore seed. The winter thrushes were as uncooperative as usual but I managed a couple of grab shots . Fieldfare Redwing