What is the UKs ‘best’ invertebrate? Its (just about still) Insect Week so I decided to try and find out. With 1000s if not 10,000s of species to choose from so it was not easy. This list would no doubt be different from any other person, and I tried to make sure I didn’t pick…
Its that time of year to look back and reflect on what I’ve seen and photographed. No trips abroad this year, and I largely visited places I have been many times before, but I certainly found some new things and improved my shots of others. The year started, as it often does with me, inside…
Following on from my last post, I got the pond creature photography bug back at the end of last month and had an hour lunchbreak to kill, so decided to photograph the 2 species I had captured for a display I was showing The first was a Black bellied (great) diving beetle Dytiscus semisulcatus. The…
A few SHots of a Tabanus Horsefly I managed to get close to. It look like the Dipteran answer to a certain Belgian detective.
I’ve been seeing large red damselflies for a couple of weeks, but none until today have settled anywhere I could get a half decent photo. This male I found today in Wat Tyler CP sat nicely on a leaf and let me photograph him. There was however a bit of a light breeze and it…
While at Strumpshaw Fen I finally managed to photograph a Hairy dragonfly Brachytron pratense.
The nettle beds at Strumpshaw Fen where especially fruitful. This cardinal beetle, the red headed species Pyrochroa serraticornis, posed on the nettles for a bit, though the wind made shots a bit more tricky! The mosquitoes were eating us alive, but i did get a nice shot of one!
If you’ve been following me on Twitter or Facebook you will know I have had stag beetles Lucanus cervus in my garden recently. Ive had both stag beetle and lesser stag beetle, but I’ll cover the photos of the former from Friday in this post. 2 males were found in a bucket in the garden.…
I came home last night and was shown 2 male stag beetles and a couple of lesser stag beetles in a bucket in my garden. I’ve taken a few photos which I’ll hopefully post later, but here is a shot take with my 35mm at f11 with a 0.5second shutter speed, to show how still…
I started off today with a trip into town and had the rest of the morning to head to RSPB West Canvey Marshes. Or so I thought until I hit yet another standstill of traffic in Essex! I didn’t have time to get to Canvey, so I popped into a private reserve instead and found…