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 .

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 and Clouded Yellows in Cheshire 24th August 2014

I am going on a macro shoot today up to Rixton clay pits up in Warrington area.
Arriving nice and early ish   for me that is  lol     i soon spot a nice back lit white feeding on a thistle flower

             And on the fence nearby a Drone hoverfly resting, shot with canon mpe-65 macro lens

                 Some sort of plant bug , i never manage to id these things.   again mpe lens used

 Good job i didn't bring Mollster , never seen this sign before , they are doing alot of work here putting up fences preventing access large areas . this will probably prevent me getting to the best areas and may have to find another place to visit .  why cant they leave nature reserves natural without boundary's!  the best wild flowers for shooting are now on the wrong side of the fenced off path! 

 another Drone portrait  , i haven't used the mpe nearly enough recently , must use it more next year.

      A couple of butterfly's feeding on the Wrong side of the fence , which is not finished so i got through the gaps  lol

                                                                     a Gatekeeper

                               Walking along the boardwalk now in search of Dragonfly's

 The common darters are sunbathing on the fence rail , i just need to creep up on them carefully now to get within a couple inches with the mpe for some portraits

                                   5 frames focus stacked to increase depth of field

                                                                           Fly on Black 

                                 a Noonday fly portrait , I'm having fun now :)  love this lens!

          I have just spotted an Emerald damselfly , never seen one here before but its difficult to get in the long grass to get a shot ,using 100mm lens i need to get the focal plane correct so all parts of it are sharply in focus,, i failed :(

                                                    a newly emerged common darter

                                         nice back lighting on the newly emerged dragon

walking along the fence i have just noticed a digger wasp ,I need to get within 3 inches with the lens for this one!    i have crawled along the ground to get close without spooking it  Yay!  gotcha :D

 In the meadow area there are quite a few Peacocks , ALWAYS great to see these common but stunning butterfly's

 I have just spotted a yellowy/orange butterfly flying in the distance over this meadow , it Must be a Clouded yellow!    i have just Got to get a shot of it, only ever once seen one of these migratory butterfly's.

running through the tall meadow with a long lens i get close and it flys off :(   but soon spot it again and just manage this poor shot.   carefully getting closer i am almost near enough to use the 100mm macro lens when Another Clouded Yellow comes down and spooks the first one!!  Bollocks

after about 3/4 hour i have spotted one again, and this time manage to get fairly close to get these two images  YAY!

                                       Stunning to see , they look more orange in flight

                                          the end of a fantastic days macro shooting :)