A couple of photos from one of dragonfly chasing lunch breaks. As well as the migrant hawkers, there is an abundance of ruddy darters at Wat Tyler CP. I’ve seen many tandem egg laying pairs, but they move pretty fast as the male whips the female down to lay an egg. I took a few…
DetailsI managed some nice photos of a young adder this morning. It posed well, didn’t move, but as always with these snakes something wasn’t great, the light. It was a sunny morning but this snake was in the shade and I ahd to resort to flash. My flashgun batteries were dead so I had to…
DetailsAfter 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…
DetailsSome 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.…
DetailsLast Friday I had a go at photographing a southern migrant hawker (Aeshna affinis) that was flying around an gap between some reeds and some hawthorn. This meant I could get away with using my 100mm macro. Therefore this images are quite heavily cropped. I spotted a southern migrant hawker on Monday but didn’t get…
DetailsEven the most beautiful of insects die, and this one died on the surface of the pond. Here a number of pond skaters gathered to feed on it from above, and at least one backswimmer fed on it from below.
DetailsAt 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…
DetailsWhen in the New Forest I saw more graylings than I ever have before, especially at Hatchet Moor, with another couple near Crockford stream. They didn’t want to pose, but I managed a few shots:
DetailsThere were a few people in Wat Tyler CP today looking for the Southern migrant hawker dragonfly. If you are unfamiliar with this species see my last post. Today I was unable to use my long lens so didn’t get any more of it in flight, but at the end of the day I got…
DetailsIn 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…
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