Azure blue damselfly eating a mosquito
While at Strumpshaw Fen I came across this azure blue damselfly, chomping down on a mosquito.
Cardinal Beetle and mosquito
The nettle beds at Strumpshaw Fen where especially fruitful. This cardinal beetle, the red headed species Pyrochroa serraticornis, posed on the nettles for a bit, though the wind made shots a bit more tricky! The mosquitoes were eating us alive, but i did get a nice shot of one!
Stag beetles Lucanus cervus
If you’ve been following me on Twitter or Facebook you will know I have had stag beetles Lucanus cervus in my garden recently. Ive had both stag beetle and lesser stag beetle, but I’ll cover the photos of the former from Friday in this post. 2 males were found in a bucket in the garden.…
Swallowtail butterflies at Strumpshaw Fen
Last weekend I popped up to Strumpshaw Fen for a couple of days. One of the target species was the swallowtail butterfly. I didn’t manage a good top down angle photo of one with undamaged wings though sadly. One of those with a damsged wing however sat on the floor ignoring everyone photographing it so…
Stag beetles
I came home last night and was shown 2 male stag beetles and a couple of lesser stag beetles in a bucket in my garden. I’ve taken a few photos which I’ll hopefully post later, but here is a shot take with my 35mm at f11 with a 0.5second shutter speed, to show how still…
Tame rabbit and four spotted chaser
Just got in from lovely evening walk with a class of kids where we got within 3 metres of a wild rabbit! For once I had my camera with me and took these shots. Bare in mind these were taken with 30 kids (being remarkably calm and quiet!) right there next to me. In fact…
Wide angle emperor dragonfly and reed warbler
I started off today with a trip into town and had the rest of the morning to head to RSPB West Canvey Marshes. Or so I thought until I hit yet another standstill of traffic in Essex! I didn’t have time to get to Canvey, so I popped into a private reserve instead and found…
Scarce chaser at Strumpshaw fen
Last weekend I spent a couple of days at Strumpshaw Fen RSPB reserve enjoying the invertebrates there. One of them was the scarce chaser dragonfly, Libellula fulva. One was tolerant enough for my 35mm wide angle to be used. Though a bit awkwardly angled for the ‘traditional’ top down shot, as was this maturing male.
Cream spot tiger moth Epicallia villica
Yesterday I was pointed in the direction of a Cream spot tiger moth Epicallia villica. I tried some angles other than the typical top down one and was treated to some wonderful colours. Who said moths are dull? I also got a close up of the head.
Glow worm larva at RSPB Rainham Marshes
Back at the end of April I went to RSPB Rainham were, almost as soon as I left the centre, I came across this Glow worm larva. I had photographed one the previous weekend, but had to use flash as it was in woodland. This one was on the path in much better (if a…