Azure blue damselfly eating a mosquito
While at Strumpshaw Fen I came across this azure blue damselfly, chomping down on a mosquito.
Cardinal Beetle and mosquito
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!
Stag beetles Lucanus cervus
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.…
DetailsThreatening call from a Chaffinch
No not a abusive phone call from a bird that has worked out how to use a phone, but a photo of a chaffinch who wasn’t happy about others on it’s feeder! I was set up for crested tit on this next shot, so a very close crop of a much bigger chaffinch in the…
DetailsSwallowtail butterflies at Strumpshaw Fen
Last weekend I popped up to Strumpshaw Fen for a couple of days. One of the target species was the swallowtail butterfly. I didn’t manage a good top down angle photo of one with undamaged wings though sadly. One of those with a damsged wing however sat on the floor ignoring everyone photographing it so…
DetailsFemale Marsh Harrier Circus aeruginosus Part 2
Some more photos of the female marsh harrier and the crows that wanted some rabbit too!
Stag beetles
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…
DetailsTurtle dove and wood pigeon side by side
Today at Wat Tyler CP there was a a bluethroat….and I missed it. I did however come across a turtle dove on a telegraph post. Which was joined by a wood pigeon. Our biggest Pigeon with our smallest. The turtle dove then flew down to the ground. I didn’t get too close and it was…
DetailsTame rabbit and four spotted chaser
Just got in from lovely evening walk with a class of kids where we got within 3 metres of a wild rabbit! For once I had my camera with me and took these shots. Bare in mind these were taken with 30 kids (being remarkably calm and quiet!) right there next to me. In fact…
DetailsWide angle emperor dragonfly and reed warbler
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…
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