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 .