Beef steak fungus Fistulina hepatica
One of the best find in the New forest was this Beef steak fungus. The great thing about fungi is you can try them from all different angles and focal lengths, thanks to the fact they don’t move!
DetailsPond skaters on New Forest river
While in the New Forest by a river I spotted one of the large pond skater or water strider species on a river. So I tried out the DA*300mm, with extension tubes on for closer focus distance and attached the flash to increase the shutter speed in the poor light. These photos were the result.
DetailsFalse deathcap Amanita citrina
A couple of photos from my trip to the New Forest last weekend. This false deathcap Amanita citrina was growing on a nice mound of earth, moss and rotting wood, making it easy to get the background out of focus. I then tried the opposite effect with the 35mm macro and brought the background into…
DetailsSquash bug
Among the insect finds in my garden recently was this squash bug.
Fencing hopping crow in slow motion
A quick video of a crow hopping from post to post, at 1/4th normal speed.
Dark bush cricket
My garden has had a few mice invertebrates since i moved in, including at least 2 species of cricket. One of these is the dark bush cricket.
DetailsBank vole
A couple of photos of a bank vole that turned up a week or so ago.
Corizus hyoscyami plant bug
A nice recent find in my garden was this Corizus hyoscyami plant bug I intially thought it was a fire bug, but turned out to be this other lovely species.
DetailsPedicia hairy cranefly larva
One of the stranger finds from a stream kick sample taken in the Cairngorms was this hairy cranefly Pedicia sp. larva. When you mention cranefly larvae, most people will think of the leatherjacket found under lawns eating grass roots, but there are a number of aquatic species too. The thing that surprised me about this…
DetailsHow the cull could have made badgers locally extinct
The latest news from the badger cull is that it will be extended. Apparently they haven’t killed enough as many because there are less badgers than they estimated. The story is here on the BBC News website There is a bit of a staggering realisation when you look at the data in this story, it…
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