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.
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…
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…
Another creature I photographed in my macro session was this Rhingia campestris hoverfly. It has the long ‘nose’ due to its extra long mouthpart which can reach down into flowers to get nector other hoverflies can’t reach. I need to find or think of a common name for this beast to tell the children I…
A couple of more macros from yesterday, of a green veined white butterfly.
I had a nice half hour or so of macro photography this afternoon, despite the blowing gale and sporadic sun! In a relatively sheltered spot I spotted a male orange tip patrolling, feeding and sun bathing around the garlic mustard. A bit further along I spotted 4 large red damselflies as I walked along the…
Last weekend I was on a Forest School Course with the excellent people at EarthcraftUK in Blean Woods. There are a number of wood ant nests in the area and in a lunch break I found a line of them heading up a tree, but it was midday and they were very active and very…
A quick pond photo from last night, a broad bodied chaser dragonfly nymph.