In my last post I mentioned that I temporarily captured a bog raft spider to get some photos and this post will concentrate on just them. I have slight obsession with both species raft spiders, often referred to as the UK’s biggest 2 species. I spent a number of weekends trying to photograph them in…
Cast your mind back to early September early last year. Its a bright sunny Saturday morning, but the signs that it is first weekend of September are there, there is some insect life, but not the hordes you get in the peak numbers of May and June, there are some flowers, but many have gone…
This is the second part of my best of my photos in 2015, the 1st part is here In the last weekend of June I headed to the New Forest to hopefully find some bog raft spiders. I sadly failed to find any there (or at Thursley Common on the way back), but did find…
While at Thursley Common we came across this lizard sunbathing in the open on some flattened grass, I’ve not seen one in this sort of basking spot before.
A quick 1 photo post of a small red damselfly on Thursley Common.
While at Thirsley common I came across a number of bog bush crickets Metrioptera brachyptera, but this male was the most cooperative, as it sat and posed on the boardwalk. I got a close up too.
Yesterday I had my annual trip to Thursley Common, the most species rich site for dragonflies and damselflies in the country. I managed some nice photos, including these black darters (my first of the year) which posed for some shots. The black mature males were flighty and I only managed this shot of one. Some…
Here is a video of a emerald damselfly (Lestes sponsa) doing ‘the worm!’ It is really using its abdomen to clean its wings, which was interesting to watch. You can tell from the video there was a bit of breeze yesterday!
On a recent visit to Thursley Common, which was sadly pretty unproductive for invertebrates, we found this wood mouse which was feeding on grass seeds near the picnic area. It seemed unfazed by the humans around it but wouldn’t quite come out enough to pose. We all waited for a good 20 or 30mins and…
When at thursley common back in June I tried some pond dipping off one of the board walks. When filling the tray with water before using the ent I scooped up a water spider, which is rather excellent considering Ive only ever seen 2 before. I caught quite a few in the end, they seeme…