UK Wildlife

Mating crane flies, ox eye daisy, cuckoo spit (froghopper nymph) and Black ants

Neil-UKWildlife — Sat, 19 May 2012 17:06:23 +0000

Stretch spider Tetragantha extensa

Neil-UKWildlife — Thu, 17 May 2012 17:03:11 +0000

Some from last year: Stretch spider Tetragantha extensa

It was eating a midge.

Blue tailed damselfly

Neil-UKWildlife — Tue, 15 May 2012 17:00:37 +0000

Last year I was photographing a cooperative blue tailed damselfly at Wat Tyler Country Park

Scarce chaser dragonfly, greek marsh frog, mammoth wasp and beautiful demosielle

Neil-UKWildlife — Sun, 13 May 2012 20:48:06 +0000

On a trip to a reservoir in kefalonia we saw some interesting stuff. There were scarce chaser dragonflies flying around.

There were greek marsh frogs.

This mammoth wasp was on a flower.

A blue tailed damselfly perched nicely.

As did this beautiful demoiselle.

Rock partridge

Neil-UKWildlife — Fri, 11 May 2012 17:47:16 +0000

In Kefalonia we came across a rock partridge.

It had some youngsters with it!

Black headed gull breeding colony, Minsmere

Neil-UKWildlife — Thu, 10 May 2012 17:00:53 +0000

Also at Minsmere I went to the hide that is usually good for photographing nesting Avocets. Sadly the water level was so high only a few black headed gulls were left on the remaining tops of the islands.

Some were bringing in nesting material.

Rabbit kit at Minsmere

Neil-UKWildlife — Tue, 08 May 2012 17:26:32 +0000

A couple of weekends ago I visited a very wet Minsmere RSPB nature reserve in Suffolk. There was not much about but in the car park I photographed some rabbits, including a cute little kit.

Another was grooming

Argostoli, Kefalonia: yellow legged gull, woodchat shrike and loggerhead turtle

Neil-UKWildlife — Sat, 05 May 2012 20:23:28 +0000

On my visit to Kefalonia 2 years ago I spent a half day in the capital Argostoli. In the harbour there were a number of yellow legged gulls.

Walking along the shore path I came across the first shrike I had ever seen, a woodchat shrike.

The harbour is famous for the tame loggerhead turtle. I got ok views of one but the best photo I could managed was this!

Palapares and Eurolean antlions, ringed plovers and balkan wall lizard

Neil-UKWildlife — Tue, 01 May 2012 21:22:07 +0000

A quick post with the other photos from Mounda beach. There was a large antlion, probably Palapares sp.

And the smaller Euroleon sps.

There was an individual of both the ringed plover species on the beach.

Ringed plover

Little ringed plover

It was a beautiful sunny day.

The balkan wall lizards were basking.

Latice brown and cleopatra butterfly, swallowtail caterpillar tiger beetle and house martin on Mounda beach, Kefalonia

Neil-UKWildlife — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 19:32:08 +0000

A couple of years ago I went to Kefalonia, staying in Skala at the south of the island. A decent walk away was Mounda beach near Katelios. This beach is one of the last breeding sites for loggerhead turtles on Kefalonia, a species that is under threat from expanding tourism. However there is a group that is working to protect them: the Katelios groups.

When I was there in May the were of course no turtles, but there was a lot of other wildlife. The good light helped me get this emperor dragonfly in flight over a small stream flowing onto the beach.

There were also house martins collecting mud/wet sand from the stream.

There were a number of tiger beetles running around too.

The walk down to the beach was quite productive too. This swallowtail caterpillar was a nice find.

This cleopatra butterfly posed by the road, unlike their never still brimstone relatives!

And this latice brown butterfly posed briefly.