Bug Hunt at Prees Heath, Shropshire july 22

Today i am going on a bug hunt to Prees Heath , its too late for the Silver Studded Blue butterflies now but there should be some dragonflies around hopefully , But   the weather is not looking too good.    cloudy and quite breezy.

 I am walking across the airfield site towards the pond , which was only dug a couple of years ago.

 I have just found a couple of blue Damselflies , its a bit too breezy to get sharp images hand held with my 5dsr , think i should have brought the 5dmk2 instead.  

 The wind is blowing across the water into the thick scrub over on this side towards the road, this is where most of the Dragonflies will be i guess.

 Yes  i have already spooked a couple of Common Darters , i managed to keep this one in sight and followed it until it landed.

      And another one ,   might try putting the mpe-65 macro lens on and try for a close up portrait.

                A single frame with flash , no chance of preventing a black background unfortunately.

After a couple of minutes i spot a darker Dragonfly fly off and land nearby......  now What was it?

 I have spotted it on a thistle leaf very close to the ground , it is a Black Tailed Skimmer ,  with the mpe-65 on again i am lying down on the ground to get the lens within 2 inches to get a good portrait , and it is just staying still for me.

                                                       This is a 5 frame focus stack .

 and moving in a bit closer a 10 frame focus stack , resting the lens barrel on my hand while holding the stem between my fingers keeps everything fairly well aligned when shooting all the individual frames.

       That was a great half hour , and i have finished with an on the finger shot before it flew off .

                   Now i have moved to near the road where a ditch gives shelter from the wind.

                                         A Gatekeeper ,  2 frames focus stacked with mpe-65

                                                  a nicely coloured garden cross spider .

               Time to head back to the car now , the wind has increased and its drizzling with rain.

                      A quick shot of a Noonday Fly , wonderful bright gold colour on these flies

 I am near the car park but will take a look at the Oak trees , these may be a couple of Purple Hairstreak butterflies low down to see.

I have spotted 2 quite close in but they have flown up into the Oak ,  but i have just spotted another one  , a bit tatty but its a good end of the day...........

or is it?       a Crab Spider must have fallen on my arm .  good opportunity for a quick close up on my hand.   6 frames focus stacked.

                                                          The end of a great day .

Bodnant Garden Bug hunt April 14 2014

I think its time i went on a Bug Hunt, been far too long , Bodnant gardens near Conwy in North Wales seems a good idea , usually a good chance of Miner bees and one of the few places i know that can see Beeflys which are on the wing now , its early spring and quite warm with a sunny day forecast :)

I have arrived and entered the Gardens , the spring flower borders are looking superb.

                                     Superb view over the Snowdonia mountains

The terrace and the rose gardens are usually a good starting point , a large Saraccoca i think its called, has small white flowers that Beeflys love to feed on is near the steps on the edge of the garden in below photo.    i am heading there first.

Walking down onto the lower terrace i have spotted a Miner bee in the shade on a wall, they need warmth to fly so this one should be easy to photograph with the Mpe-65 macro lens.

                                                                 Its being a good model :)

                                           

coming to where the Saracoca Was!  as its been dug out :(       no Beefly feeding shots today it would seem!
Now i head down a steep path lined with Camelias which  goes down to the lower stream in the valley , good waterside planting will attract the bugs hopefully.     i have just shot this tiny moth fly on a Camelia petal :)   they are about 3-4 mm wingspan .

 

In a sun trap in the valley floor near to the stream i have found loads of bees and a few of these Tawny miner bees, so beautifully coloured

          at last a Beefly  , they are very skittish today and cant get close enough to shoot properly.

                      and another beautiful bee, Ashy mining bee Andrena cinerari.

I have spotted my first large red damselfly of the year, a couple weeks earlier than last year ,this is a two frame focus stack with mpe-65

After an hour shooting, or trying  lol   i am going to have a quick walk around the gardens before going home.                           a lovely hoverfly in a Rhododenron flower:)

                                                         A few pics of the beautiful gardens.

                                                 the end of a great day in wales

Whixal Moss bug hunt May 7th

For a change I am going on a bug hunt today, haven't really been out to my usual walk sites since getting Mollster , so today I have left her home alone and am heading to Whixal Moss in Shropshire to hopefully photograph the Green Hairstreak butterflies.  it is a few weeks later than the last few years but after the prolonged winter everything is much later emerging this year.

Having arrived at the round house car park I quickly make my way down the track towards the mosses, out of the corner of my eye I have just spotted something flying, a large red damselfly, my first of the year. I soon found where it perched and have managed to take this single frame sitting on my finger before it flew of out of sight.   a great start to the day, but I am a bit rusty with the mpe-65 macro lens not having used it in a long time.

The main path runs out onto the mosses and there are two good Green Hairstreak areas further out towards the small pools., I have just walked out of the wood into the open scrub and almost immediately have spotted a Green Hairstreak , I have never seen one this close to the wood , I rush towards where it has landed and manage to get a single shot before it flies off over the ditch and I cannot follow!

I am so happy to get a shot already , not expecting to see them in this spot i am now keeping a good look out in all likely spots.  its really bleak on the mosses , still very brown with little greenery

         a rustling in the dead bracken nearby caught my attention , here is the culprit   a lizard!

Moving quickly on to a known hot spot for hairstreaks i have had a good search and spotted Nothing!  very strange not to find any here. but there is a better area over on the other side of the mosses along the canal so i am going to go for a long walk and see what i can find.

The canal is looking lovely this morning , but have not seen anything so far, not even miner bees which should be feeding on all the dandelion flowers , just where the mosses path joins the towpath i have just spotted what can only be a Holly Blue butterfly , it is a good area for them all along this part of the canal. there are two of them and i have to get down on the ground to get this image. but missed good focus on the wings.  it then perched on a leaf just above the ground!   they are not making it easy for me today that's for sure.

                        a field of dandelions , looks great.  but no butterflies?   odd!

i am now walking across the mosses to see what i can find, the drainage ditches have been recently cleared out and looks like the sluices are being renovated also.

there are loads of birds tweeting, i managed to get this shot with the macro lens, it is a big crop though.  it is a male Wheatear.

arriving back in the area where the Hairstreak was earlier i have now spotted two of them, chasing them along the path i have manged to shoot a few images, this is the only image in focus!  really do need more practise!

               a good shot to finish with , its been an interesting day and a good walk .

            all shots taken with canon 5d mk2 , 100mm L macro & mpe-65 macro lens