Wheatear with weevil on its beak
While photographing the wheatear at Wat tyler CP, I noticed something on its beak. I seems to be some sort of weevil. Possibly Sitona lineatus or s imilar weevils species.
Bee wolf, 22 spot ladybird and brown argus at Canvey Wick
Back in August, I went along to the Buglife walk at Canvey Wick. The weather was not perfect but improved as the day went on so we did find some nice invertebrates, which is what the site is famous for. In fact it is believed to have more species per hectare than any other site…
Broad bodied chaser nymph, smooth newt tadpole and hawker dragonfly nymphs
Some more pond photos. For this broad bodied chaser nymph I used image stacking. I also tried some image stacking on some smooth newt tadpoles. And this damselfly nymph. I also took some typical macros of this hawker dragonfly nymph, which had just shed its skin and was light green in colour.
Hawker dragonfly nymph close up
Here is an image of a hawker dragonfly nymph that has just shed its skin (hence the light colouration), that I took using my photographic aquarium. I managed to increase the depth of field by using image stacking (combining a few images focused at different distances).
Lesser water boatman nymph
Back in June I found a nicely coloured lesser water boatman nymph. I had never seen one with such colouration before. So I took photos from a number of angles in my photographic aquarium.
Willow emerald damselfly at Strumpshaw Fen
Last weekend I had a trip up to Norfolk, which included a visit to Strumpshaw Fen. I had heard that willow emeralds (Lestes viridis) were present and went to have a look. As I crossed thr railway I ran into Dick who runs Rare bird alert and was the person who reported them the previous…
Water louse, bloodworm, Rhantus suturalis diving beetle and Limnephilus rhombicus caddisfly larva
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…
Damselfly nymph, backswimmer and lesser water boatman
Here are some pond creature photos I took way back in January using my photographic aquarium. First up a nice damselfly larva. Im not 100% sure on the species but it would be either common or azure blue, or a blue tailed damselfly. I also got a number of lesser water boatman photos. I got…
Privet Hawkmoth
Back in April a privet hawkmoth was brought in to work. This moth was pretty big! So I took lots of photos!
Common lizard, grasshopper and nursery web spider
The day before visiting Rainham we went to a few other sites in Essex. We started in Epping Forest where we found some common lizards. Along with some meadow grasshoppers. This one started stridulating.. There were loads of migrant hawker dragonflies hunting over the scrub and heath, but none posed for photos. We then moved…