A few years ago on my old blog I posted a diagram to show the emergence and flight times of all the British odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) and a seemed to be quite popular. Since then a number of new species have become established in Britain, or are at least well on their way to…
DetailsOn Saturday morning I headed reasonably early to Elmley Marshes. The drive in was pretty quiet except for a few yellow wagtails until I reached an area with a field that had much shorter vegetation. Here were a number of hares, which wherereachable with my Pentax 300mm and 1.7x convertor combo. One decided to have…
DetailsA few photos I took of red grouse on my way home from the Cairngorms back in March, the route for which just so happened to take us through a good spot for them.
Here’s a slightly different pond creature shot, with a white background. The backswimmer is also a bit different as its Notonecta maculata, rather than the usual N. glauca.
Today just before my lunch break ended (typical!) I spotted an emerald damselfly (Lestes sp.). I managed a few photos, trying to focus on the key ID features to separate the from the Scarce (Lestes dryas), ‘common’ (L. sponsa) and the Southern/ migrant (L. barbarus) emeralds, all recorded from Wat Tyler Country Park. It refused…
DetailsI paid a visit to Rainham Marshes today as the weather forecast seemed OK, if a bit windy. The wind pretty much ruled out any serious macro, except for larger stuff on the boardwalks and fences. Around the bird woodland boardwalk there were plenty of common or viviparous lizards. However this one was a bit…
DetailsIve posted photos the larva of a lesser water beetle and the great silver water beetle recently, but the most ferocious of them all are the larvae of the great diving beetle species or Dytiscus larvae. If you mange to get one of these in your pond dipping tray, you will soon end up with…
DetailsLast June I went to Pembrokeshire, which meant a trip to Skomer. This Islan is most famous for its puffins and I got more than a few photos.
I got photos with nesting material.
And photos of them in flight
Preening.
Close up.
On the sea
And erm:
Following form my last post, here are the photos from that feeding great silver water beetle. You can really see those asymmetrical mandibles in this close up. Which they use to eat the snail. It would occasionally uncurl to get some air from the surface. Before recurling around its wandering pond snail prey. In this…
DetailsHere is a video I made of a great silver water beetle larva (Hydrophilus piceus) feeding on a wandering pond snail (Radix labiata). It has an interesting method of feeding where, after grabbing the snail in its unsymmetrical mouthparts, it then curls its body around it to get a better hold as is devours it!…
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