Last week a realised that the emerald damselflies would soon be emerging and there would not be nymphs around for much longer. This because despite hatching in March/April, they only take a matter of weeks to grow and emerge as adults, so the time available to photograph them is not very long. I managed to…
Today at Wat Tyler there were dragonflies abound at the one pond I managed to visit in my lunch break. The first I noticed was this male broad bodied chaser On the water surface a number of azure damselflies in tandem were egg laying in the weed that was at the surface. Soon after I…
I had a quick dip in a pond at Wat Tyler CP this evening just before the sun had set. And when I say quick I mean I put the net in the water just the once! Along with a diving beetle larva was a small newt: I thought it was rather small for a…
The last from the productive pond dip photography session. I got my best over of a few more species: Cloen dipterum Mayfly nymph. Agraylea multipunctata Micro caddisfly larva And wandering pond snail.
Carrying on from my last post, the pond photography session gave me my best ever hawker dragonfly nymph. I got it from various angles, including these two in which you can really see that mask or labium they use to catch prey, under slung below the head. I also got a top down shot. I…
Some more pond photos. First up my best photo yet of a Pond olive mayfly nymph. This one appears to have lost half of its middle tail filament. I also photographed some chironomid midge larvae. this group is best known for its red coloured species, known as bloodworms. This species however was green and hide…
A couple more species from my pond photos. First up an anopheline mosquito larvae. These larvae have the top of the body at the waters surface, unlike the culicine mosquito larvae which have just their breathing tube. This made a reflection shot easier. I also got a head on shot. I also got a couple…
A few more from the pond dipping session. Some photos of a hawker dragonfly nymph. Here is a close up of the head. And probably my favourite shot.
back in June I found some smaller diving beetles that were very dark in colour. I guessed they were no Dytiscus and with a bit of research settled on Ilybius sp. I got some different angles, including this one of the air bubble at teh tip of the abdomen. And my favourite one was this…
I will post properly on this at some point but here is a photo of one of my pond creature photography set ups It consists of a camera with macro lens (in this case Pentax K-5 and 100mm macro) with optional extension tubes, a small aquarium and a flash with diffusion off camera, in this…