A couple of weeks ago I had a day on the Isle of Sheppey to enjoy some of the wildlife found there. The south of the island is mostly grazing marsh and is rich in wildlife, especially waders and raptors. I took 100s of photos on that day, but the highlight was a spoonbill seen…
The end of April/start of May usual signals the start of the real emergence of insects. There are of course a few earlier risers that emerge earlier in the year, but it this time of year when the greater variety of species start to appear. On a recent lunchbreak spent in Wat Tyler Country Park…
I blogged recently about a male adder trying to court a female, well 4 days after he was first spotted trying, he was still courting away. Here he is sitting on top of the female. He felt the vibrations of someone else approaching and stuck his head up to look. The female was still not…
Yesterday we had a family visit to the craft fair at RHS Hyde Hall and I was not planning on taking many photos after taking 1600 shots the day before on Sheppey (blog post on that to follow!), but I always take my camera with me just in case. One of the craft tents was…
A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to photograph a male adder. He wasn’t alone, as there was a female there trying to bask nearby and he was paying her lots of attention, crawling over her and smelling her with his tongue. Trying to get under her. And sometimes nudging her in the…
There has been a bit of a gap since my last blog, so a fair bit to catch up on, but I’ll start with my most recent project; frog tadpoles. Two years ago I dug a small pond in my garden with the hope that some amphibians would turn up, but I only saw one…
A couple of years ago I finally managed to get hold of a water spider (Argyroneta aquatica) and get some nice photos of this fascinating species They are the only fully aquatic spider species in the world. The live out a diving bell, which is a large bubble of air trapped in an underwater web.…
Back in June a colleague brought in an interesting orb weaver spider with distinctive ‘bumps’ on the abdomen. After some detective work and ultimately an ID from Peter Harvey, it was identified as a Gibbaranea gibbosa. Its not particularly rare, but a firs for me. Just goes to show new species can turn up anywhere,…
Here is part 2 of my 2016 review, carrying on from part 1. I had a wildlife trip up to Yorkshire for an early birthday present and one of my targets was a common hawker dragonfly. I had seen a probably common hawker in the Cairngorms back in 2014, but I’d never had a good…
As is tradition now, as 2016 is drawing to a close, I’ve written a review of the year. Its been a mixed year, where for reasons that will become apparent below, I’ve not been able to get as much with the camera as in previous years, but I’ve had few nice wildlife experiences, got a…