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:
DetailsFollowing 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!…
DetailsA couple of weeks ago I noticed that the strange looking larva of the lesser diving beetle Acilius sp. (probably sulcatus) swimming around in a pond. I quick went and got a net and caught one, before taking it inside to photography in my aquarium set up. It is a fairly distinctive larvae with its…
DetailsLast 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…
DetailsSome pics from the Cairngorms now. Most people stick to the grouse and other highland specialties when in the the Cairngorms but I can’t resist a good toad photograph and at this loch there were 100s! They were in the water and on the paths. There were a few mating pairs. I I couldn’t resist…
DetailsToday 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…
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