A couple of weekends ago I was kindly allowed to tag along on Colchester Natural History Groups outing to RSPB Old Hall Marshes. I went along with Pam and Peter, two of the best aquatic ecologists in Essex and we surveyed the borrowdyke near the sea wall. One of the things we found were my…
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…
A couple of years ago I was fortunate enough to be introduced to Naomi Ewald, who is an expert on all thing freshwater in the New Forest and works for the Freshwater Habitats Trust. Last year she was kind enough to take me to a pond full of medicinal leeches and to a pond to…
Last Saturday I headed down to the New Forest to finally meet up with Naomi Ewald from FHT to look at some ponds with species that required her Schedule 5 license. I say finally because our previous attempts to meet had been thwarted by everything from flooding and thunderstorms to non functioning alarms, but this…
2013 has been a funny old year. It started of slow and with the cold spring and late start to summer, combined with me being busy moving house and completeing a Forest School Qualification, I didn’t spend as long out taking photgraphs as I have in previous years (well it feels like I didn’t!). It…
The water louse is a common species found in many still and slow flowing aquatic habitats (including polluted ones), but it is not photographed very often, even when compared to other pond creatures. This is probably due to their habit of diving for cover or the corner of the photographic aquarium. Last winter I tried…
A couple of nice finds from pond and borrow dyke survey. First was this opossum shrimp my first ever. They are called this because they carry their young round ina pouch, like marsupials. Secon was this screech or squeak beetle, famous for squeaking when it feels threatened. That is the only good shot I managed…
Regular readers will know I photograph pond creatures on a fairly regular basis, but up until today I have never managed a shot I’m happy with of a Water louse Asellus aquaticus. I catch them on most pond dips, but because they are so common, combined with the fact they have the habit tucking themselves…
Some more of the pond photos from January. Most of these have had some dust and dirt cloned out of them and a couple, notably the following photo, has had the background touched up. The first photos are of a water louse or slater. They are the aquatic relative of the woodlouse. They are often…