I started today by heading straight to the spot where I saw the emperors emerging, but they were no longer there and just their exuvia were left. Hopefully they got away safely. At lunchtime I managed some shots of broad bodied chasers, a female hovering between egg laying. And a perched male. Yesterday I managed…
Tonight at 9pm, just as I was finishing work, a couple of emerging emperor dragonfly nymphs were spotted on some reeds in a pond. The light was literally non existent as the sun had gone down and it was the end of dusk, so I had to use flash, which combined with the awkward angle,…
Today I came across the first dragonfly that posed for a photo, a broad bodied chaser. In an effort to get something different I put on my 35mm wide angle macro and got this.
Just a quick one photo post, of an orange tip that posed on a bluebell
A couple of years ago a golf ball sized clump of white fuzz was fished out of some blanket weed on a pond dip. I had no idea what it was until I spotted the brown snorkel sticking out the water: it was the egg cocoon of the great silver water beetle! Unfortunately it would…
A few shots of the dingy skippers at Bonsai Bank.
On Sunday I popped up to Bonsai Bank at Denge Woods in Kent and found my first ever Duke of Burgandy Butterflies, after failing to find them there last year. This butterfly is one of the fastest declining in the UK, declining 46% in the last 10 years. The small colonies around Denge woods are…
Yesterday I had a walk through Denge Woods and Bonsai bank to look for some butterflies and orchids (more on them later). One bonus of the day was a green tiger beetle that ran across the pathha nd flew off ahead. eventually it sat still long enough for this shot.
The Lesser backswimmer Plea minutissima is often overlooked, being quite small (about 3mm long), resembling and often mistaken for a small nymph of the ‘greater’ backswimmer (Notonecta sp.). They are a real pain to photograph, rarely stopping long enough to find such a small creature in the frame, let a alone focus on them! I…
On couple of days ago, on a warm morning (before the horrible bitter cold wind returned), one patch of nettles near a large pond was teeming with invertebrates. Among them was my first Azure damselfly of the year. I also saw a number of red damselflies there and throughout the day, with 12+ seen around…