I had a nice half hour or so of macro photography this afternoon, despite the blowing gale and sporadic sun! In a relatively sheltered spot I spotted a male orange tip patrolling, feeding and sun bathing around the garlic mustard. A bit further along I spotted 4 large red damselflies as I walked along the…
I had a bit of a rotten start to today when my key broke in the lock to one of my survey areas. Then I couldn’t find anything the rest of the morning and the cuckoo continued to evade me all day. But the day to a turn for the better when my first Odonata…
Today at Rainham Marshes there was a little grebe sitting on its nest. I sat on the boardwalk near the nest and took a number of photos. Apparently to start with she was constantly on and off the nest, possibly due to the people walking past (its the only path/boardwalk you can walk along so…
On Tuesday I got word there was a grasshopper warbler about, but it took 3 attempts to hear and then finally see it, which was my first ever view of the species. I then staked it out yesterday evening, when the light was much poorer of course, and got a couple of OK grab shots…
I found my first reptiles of the year this morning: some slow worms. They were fairly sluggish, at least to start with, so I got a few shots of them before they slithered off.
Some from the processing backlog, much of which consists of pond creatures like these. Not my best pond pics, but worth processing. The Wandering pond snail is a common species in ponds. The pond olive mayfly nymph I have blogged about before before
A few shots from the start of January, on a sunny day in Raphael’s Park. The was not much around and sun was at an awkward angle so tried for some photos of common birds in flight. The woo pigeon came out ok, except for the background! I also tried a few of the black…
Last April I was walking around Wat Tyler CP on an evening where traffic had meant none of the regular evening dog walkers could make it to the park. The difference I saw was remarkable with rabbits all around. At one point I saw some rabbit chasing each other around and managed a couple of…
Some photos taken using my photographic aquarium of a pirate spider Piraticus sp. This spider can be found around and sometimes on the surface of ponds. This one was flashing its fangs while on the water. This species should not be confused with the much larger raft spiders. This is another species to blog in…
I came across this tame(r) blackbird recently, and the light was rubbish but it was feeding not far in front of me and I got a few ok shots. It did briefly pose still, close and in a more interesting pose, but as I went to press the shutter a sparrowhawk came from nowhere and…