Back in July I was in one of the reed bed bird hides looking for the nest I had been told about. There were at least 2, perhaps 3 pairs of adults taking food to their young. After watching the adults and moving up to the upper floor and looking down I spotted the nest.…
Some more from the pond photography session. I found for the first time the larva of a giant horsefly (Tabanus sp.). It had a weird habit of retracting its head!
I’ve been catching up with some editing including some pond creatures and I came across probably my best diving beetle images. I photographed 2 species that day, the black belly diving beetle Dytiscus semisulcatus. And the wasp diving beetle Dytiscus curcumflexus, named after the striped underside.
A few months I had a nice encounter with a tame fox, and the weather was kind too. I started taking shots with the 300mm. Then switched to the 100mm for full body shots.
Yesterday in the poor weather there was little about in Wat Tyler CP apart from a couple of crows. So I camped out at the bird feeders and got probably my best shots of goldfinches (though that says more about the low quality of the photos I’ve taken before). I had to shoot at ISO800…
Some more photos from Wales now, with photos of a green hairstreak butterfly I found at Dinas Head. I had only seen one green hairstreak before and this male was quite a poser and didn’t fly far when it did take off. So I tried a few shots of it showing the bracken it was…
Some ponds pics today, taken back in July, of a water scorpion nymph. This one is yet to develop its long ‘tail,’ which is actually a breathing tube that acts rather like a snorkel, allowing it to breathe air while the rest of its body is submerged. Here is a close up of the head.
Here are some shots from Pembrokeshire back in June. The cliffs around Broad and Little Haven had a number of rock pipit family living around them. I got reasonably close to one. And to another. The one I got closest to pulled an intersting pose as it looked for insects on the cliff.
Last week I came across a couple of crows in the morning sun. One of the resident crows displays some leucism with some with some white feathers mainly on the wings.
Here are a few shots of a pond skater a took a few weeks back. These true bugs or heteropterans stand on the surface tension of the water and ‘skate’ across it to catch insects that become trapped in the water. These were all taken using my photographic aquarium, which was full to the brim,…