Miner Bee Bug hunt may 3 rd 2016

A trip to Whixall Moss in Shropshire today , its warm and sunny but with quite a lot of clouds which will help with macro shooting.  i am hoping to shoot the miner bees that feed on the dandylion flowers on the canal bank. they are only active when the air temperature is quite warm , when cloud covers the sun they cool down and cant fly which makes them easier to photograph.

A couple of hoverfly shots taken with mpe-65 on 5dsr while walking towards the far end where i know is the best miner bee area.

  Not a clue on id of this one, Empid fly by looks of the head/thorax. a very small one, less than 10mm.

                                                                         A shield bug 

                    At the canal and there are plenty of dandylion flowers , now just need a bit of sun .

Yay!   loads of miners are feeding , as the sun goes behind a cloud this miner obliges and sits on my finger :)      loads of pollen grains on it.

     This is the best section , loads of flowers in the sun with sandy soil that these solitary bees nest in.

There are a few Nomada bee species also ,  took a while to get this 7 frame focus stack.  holding the flower stem between my fingers of left hand while resting the lens on the hand keeps it steady to do an accurate series of frames to focus stack.   which when combined gives a much greater depth of field than 1 single frame can produce.

                                                          a crop from above image.

                                               Another species of miner bee .  

                                      6 frames focus stacked at f7  mpe-65 on 5dsr

                               What a great morning shooting these tiny Bees it has been .

Risley Moss Dragonfly shoot 17th August 2015

A quick trip down to Risley Moss nature reserve near Warrington  , the black darters should be showing well .


                A Beautiful tiny Black Darter Dragonfly , they are only about 1 - 1.25 inch in size.

                      There are loads of these Emerald Damselflies perching on the grass stems .

                                      A female Scorpion Fly ,  great looking creatures :D

 Another black Darter :)  its a hard going , not that many around and its a bit breezy  which makes the stems more too much!

                                       One of the large Hoverfly species that i always see here .

                                                        Mollster is waiting patiently :)

                                                                          Resting bee :)

                                            A longhorn beetle , very common this time of year

Prees Heath Bug hunt august 3rd 2015

Today I'm going on a bug hunt to Prees Heath in Shropshire , i have been looking for Essex Skippers and they have been seen here at this site.  the weather forecast is not too bad , but when i arrive its very dull and overcast with rain threatening i fear :)


                           I have found a small Tachinid fly , shot against deep shade.

 Ladybird time , there are loads of them , mostly too active to shoot.  but this one was moving slow enough to place the plant seedpod on the ground to be able to shoot with the mpe-65 macro lens :)

                A Nicely lit Bumble bee , natural light shot with 100mm L macro lens

                      Beetle time now  , loads of these mooching around ragwort flowers.

 I have found the Skippers , its windy and starting to rain now , difficult to get a good look to see the underside of the antennae to confirm id as Essex.

                      Essex Skipper showing the tell tale dark underside of the antennae :)   YAY!

                                                      A long legged stilt fly ,  i think   lol

 Down in the ditch that runs alongside the busy main road i have spotted a few large Hoverflies , its now very windy and these are not too sharp , but an attractive species :)

                       Another Bumble Bee species , shot with flash this time as too windy to shoot with natural light , of which there isnt any now  LOL

                                                    A Teneral Common Darter Dragonfly :)

I have given up now and re-treated to the car as its chucking it down with fine rain.  As i drive home the sun comes out again , but it still looks black behind me where i was.    Tonight i will hope fully shoot the sunset on the beach at Meols.

Bug Hunt at Risley Moss 1 st september 2014

A quick trip down to Risley Moss nature reserve today , its a bit windy but it is fairly sheltered at the small meadow area i shoot at .  Dragonfly's are the main target species today.

Arriving at the site  a fast walk down to the meadow are, which is only very small but has loads of insect attracting wild plants/flowers that in turn attract the Dragonfly's , the main species here are the tiny Black Darters.

Unfortunately there are very few flowers open , appears recent rain has flattened most of them , along with loads of other photographers that have been here shooting and created paths through the plants.

                     A Drone hoverfly cleaning itself on one of the few flowers still open :)

                                  I love shooting Back lit spiders :)         the webs are superb
                                           the legs are quite translucent on this orb weaver

       A big hoverfly on my finger :)    its come over quite dull and i think its going to rain so will have to hurry up and find some Dragons, which are noticeable by their absence!

                                                                 another shot of it :)

                              I have eventualy found a pair of Black Darters , and a spider  :)         
                   this image is 5 frames focus stacked to get both spider and the dragons in focus .

                                                   An old  Female Black Darter.

                                         Young Female with her bright colours

                      and that was the last i managed to shoot , its chucking it down now :(

Whixall Moss Bug Hunt April 10

Today i decided to do some macro, not really shot much this year, so off to Whixall moss in Shropshire in the hope of finding something to shoot!   brimstone,orange tip and holly blues where seen last week, but the weather has turned since then and was not looking great for today either.
I decided to take the main path across the moss then walk down the canal towpath where there are plenty of dandelion flowers which always attract bees and hoverflies :)

                                                                     This is the main path

As you can see it is bleak, wide open peat bogs but attracts plenty of bird species along with large numbers of insects!         i didn't find anything along this section so made my way quickly to the canal. almost straight away i found this tiny ichneumon wasp , which happily climbed on my finger presumably to get some warmth!   as it was quite cold this morning.  this was shot at about x4 magnification with mpe-65 and is 3 frames focus stacked to increase depth of field.

Continuing down the canal i noticed dozens of ladybirds, most of the plants had them on, but noticed alot had damaged wing cases, very strange!  this one appeared to be sleeping  lol

       Next to be shot was a tiny Weevil, about 5mm long this one, again this is a 3 frame focus stack

As soon as i came across the first of the patches of dandelion the sun came out and hoverflies were feeding in Ernest:)

                                                          and another one resting on a leaf!

Yet more ladybirds , this one has something on its head , appears to be fungus or something similar!

Just before i went back onto the moss, i found the first of the days Miner bees feeding on a dandelion, it crawled on my finger almost straight away to warm itself :)     they cannot fly when cold !

I took the path back onto the moss to look for green tiger beetles which can often be found down by the old peat workings!   but i looked everywhere and could not find any!  the like it dry and hot to hunt on the  peat .  this is the old works.

Any how, back towards the canal in search of more miner bees :)   look at the sky now!  perfect to bring the bees out to feed!

Back on the canal , a beautiful hoverfly :)  again 3 frames focus stacked .

Miner bee time!   loads of them feeding , so here are a few images , all single frames shot with mpe-65
they are about 6-7 mm in length .

just love this!  even though cant see its head  lol

The clouds were starting to really build now , so a hasty decision to head back to the car!

there is a wooden bird viewing platform , and i noticed this small fly sitting in the warm sun!

I made my way back across the mosses , and just near the carpark, noticed this small miner bee in the shade on a wooden post rail! obviously too cold to fly :)

And finally , i shot it looking up towards the blue sky for the background, using full flash with a higher iso400 to allow more natural light into the exposure to prevent a black background from the flash fallout!

it worked perfectly!  i focused on the jaws as they are the most prominent focal point :D

                                                    The end of another good days shooting :) 


    all shots taken with canon 5d2 and mpe-65 macro lens  ( except landscapes HTC phone )