So yesterday I said goodbye to an old friend, my Pentax DA*300mm F4 lens. It has been sent off for repair and will be sold on to another owner, which I have to admit makes me a little sad. I I have many great memories and favourite photos taken with that lens. And don’t worry…
Details
A couple of weekends ago I was kindly allowed to tag along on Colchester Natural History Groups outing to RSPB Old Hall Marshes. I went along with Pam and Peter, two of the best aquatic ecologists in Essex and we surveyed the borrowdyke near the sea wall. One of the things we found were my…
Details
I have had a slow start in terms of dragonflies this year, compared to others when I have had 5 species of odonata in April, it took till Mid May for me to see any numbers of dragon and damselflies and photo opportunities were thin on the ground. But last week I finally fopund a…
Details
The end of April/start of May usual signals the start of the real emergence of insects. There are of course a few earlier risers that emerge earlier in the year, but it this time of year when the greater variety of species start to appear. On a recent lunchbreak spent in Wat Tyler Country Park…
Details
I blogged recently about a male adder trying to court a female, well 4 days after he was first spotted trying, he was still courting away. Here he is sitting on top of the female. He felt the vibrations of someone else approaching and stuck his head up to look. The female was still not…
Details
Yesterday we had a family visit to the craft fair at RHS Hyde Hall and I was not planning on taking many photos after taking 1600 shots the day before on Sheppey (blog post on that to follow!), but I always take my camera with me just in case. One of the craft tents was…
Details
A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to photograph a male adder. He wasn’t alone, as there was a female there trying to bask nearby and he was paying her lots of attention, crawling over her and smelling her with his tongue. Trying to get under her. And sometimes nudging her in the…
Details
There has been a bit of a gap since my last blog, so a fair bit to catch up on, but I’ll start with my most recent project; frog tadpoles. Two years ago I dug a small pond in my garden with the hope that some amphibians would turn up, but I only saw one…
Details
A couple of years ago I finally managed to get hold of a water spider (Argyroneta aquatica) and get some nice photos of this fascinating species They are the only fully aquatic spider species in the world. The live out a diving bell, which is a large bubble of air trapped in an underwater web.…
Details