Smooth newt tadpole Lissotriton vulgaris
A few shots from last October, of a a nearly full grown smooth newt tadpole. I placed some leaves in the aquarium and let it move around, and got some pleasing shots.
Haliplus water beetle larva and phantom midge larva
A couple of Pond creature photos, taken with my aquarium set up a while back. Both of these are under 1cm long and required the use of extension tubes for grater magnification. First up this Haliplus water beetle larva. And a couple of phantom midge larvae close ups
Migrant hawker Aeshna mixta in flight
After all the excitement of the rare southern migrant hawkers, it seem that only the migrant hawkers (Aeshna mixta) are still on the wing. I had a look at West Canvey Marshes on Sunday and there has been no sign this week at Wat Tyler CP. The week before last I came across a migrant…
Hyphydrus ovatus and lesser diving beetle Acilius sulcatus female
Some photos using my aquarium set up. One of the few species of the small dytiscid (diving) beetles you can identify without a microscope is Hyphydrus ovatus Unfortunately, like all small dytiscids, they don’t sit and pose for long, and it took my quite a while to get these photos of this 5mm long beetle.…
More Aeshna affnis with a small skipper butterfly and a slender leaved hare’s ear
At lunchtime I bumped into a couple of folks looking for the southern migrant hawker (one of who was Simon NL on Flickr, click his name to see his excellent pics). I got a couple of photos of the perched male today: Sadly with my Sigma 150-500mm rather than my 300mm prime, which I can’t…
Southern migrant hawker dragonfly at Wat Tyler Country Park
In 2010 a number of Southern migrant hawker dragonflies (Aeshna affinis) turned up at Hadleigh Country Park, a few miles East of Wat Tyler CP. They also turned up at Vange Wick (not Vange Marsh) just to the south of Wat Tyler CP, so I’ve been hoping they would turn up here. Last year, I…
A Water stick insect Ranartra linearis
I’m a bit of a pond dipper, as some regular readers will have worked out, but there is one species that has always eluded me, the water stick insect. This year I saw a preserved specimen and a captive one (which I never managed to photograph), but never before had I seen a live wild…
Emperor dragonfly egg laying
More recent photos from Wat Tyler Country Park. This time a female emperor dragonfly which was laying its eggs on some fallen reeds. This angle, although a bit top down, shows the tip of the abdomen in action below the surface. And I tried an in the environment shot too.
Scarce emerald damselfly Lestes dryas
The rubbish weather so far this summer has stopped me getting much in the way of macro shots at all, let alone of the local speciality, the scarce emerald damselfly. However the improved weather last week did let me get the following.
Rabbit stretching
Having realised how rubbish my wildlife stalking technique was on a trip to Scotland, when an opportunity has presented itself to practise, I’ve had a go. A couple of weeks ago I came across one of the (usually a bit wary) rabbits in Wat Tyler, in an area less likely for dogs to appear so…