Screech or squeek beetle Hygrobia hermanni on white background
A quick 1 photo post. A Screech or squeek beetle Hygrobia hermanni taken in my photographic aquarium
Lesser Yellow legs at West Canvey Marshes video
Popped over to West Canvey Marsh RSPB reserve yesterday in my lunch break to see the Lesser Yellow Legs, a bird I have never seen before. It was a distant view, and sadly the design at West Canvey means all birds on the far side of the lake there are and the birds on the…
DetailsBeautiful Demoiselle nymph from Bellever, Dartmoor
Another thing that turned up in my river sampling was this beautiful demoiselle nymph. I placed it in my photographic aquarium and managed some close ups of this alien look creature. In this photo you can see the large ‘horn’ behind the eye which distinguishes it from the related banded demoiselle. I found it among…
DetailsLeuctridae Stonefly larva in East Dart River
Back in August last year I did my own river dipping/sampling for the first time, at Bellever on Dartmoor, and managed to find my first ever stonefly nymphs The exact species is hard if not impossible to determin without a specimen under the microscope, but it was kindly Idebtified by Craig Macadam as one of…
DetailsBest of my pond creature photos
To celebrate the launch of the Freshwater Habitats Trust, I thought I would do a ‘best of’ my pond creature photos (some of which are being used by the FHT). These are a few of the nicer shots I’ve taken. First up, the first photo I was happy with of a four spotted chaser dragonfly…
DetailsFreshwater Habitats Trust Launch Event
Yesterday evening I was invited along to the launch of Freshwater Habitats Trust, the new name for the charity previously known as Pond conservation. The event took place on a boat on the Thames and was well attended by staff from RSPB, Natural England, ARGUK, WWT and other groups. There were a speakers on the…
DetailsPhantom midge larva
Today I’m off to the Launch of the Freshwater Habitats Trust, formerly known as Pond Conservation. I hope to Tweet this evening from the meeting and blog after the event, but to celebrate the launch, here are some phantom midge larva photos. I blogged some of the fascinating things about these brilliant creatures here:
DetailsMarsh frogs at Rainham Marshes
On Sunday I also got a few marsh frog photos. Including this turquoise individual.
DetailsMigrant hawkers in flight at Rainham Marshes
On Sunday I popped into RSPB Rainham Marshes in hope of finding some water voles. I had no luck but did find a couple of cooperative migrant hawker males. Sadly the light was not so cooperative m, with the sun increasingly dissappearing behind clouds, and doing so as the dragonfly hovering in front of me!…
DetailsRed backed shrike eats migrant hawker dragonfly
As regular readers know, I spent some time last week photographing a red backed shrike. The juvenile bird was around for a few days and was sometimes seen feeding. One foggy morning I was waiting for the fog to clear and it dived into a bush and caught something. It was a migrant hawker dragonfly!…
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