Dragons and Bugs at Whixall moss may 2016

Two days of bug hunting for me now ,   Firstly a morning shooting anything i can find along the Whixall Moss reserve :)    a lovely warm day and there should be loads to shoot .

                       First subject is a St Marks fly  aka  March fly  , Biblio species.
black and hairy with shiny body makes for a difficult exposure on these flies .

Waking along the canal bank i have just spotted a Spotted eye Dronefly, Eristalinus sepulchralis .  i very rarely see these , there are 2 species, one lives in coastal areas whereas  this species is found mainly in marshy areas.
i manage to get just a couple of frames before it disappears .

                 On to the mosses and i quickly spot a large Adder , but it was too quick for me !!!!!

                     A Large Red Damselfly perched near where i usually find the Green Hairstreaks.

                                 Its a bit dull but a couple of Green Hairstreaks are flying.

I am now at the far end along the canal bank on the boardwalk section,  hopefully to find a few Raft Spiders on the pools.

I cant believe what i have just found!     an Emperor Moth ,  i have never seen one of these before.

        Here is a Raft Spider, Dolomedes Fimbriatus. Time to put the mpe-65 macro lens on

That's better..........

                                                            Just come out of the water

                                                 A Brimstone feeding on the canal bank

                                                                    And a Speckled Wood

                                                                     Noisy creatures  lol

                                    The end of a great morning , Dragon hunting next

Whixall Bug hunt 28th april 2014

For a change i am going out macro shooting , haven't done enough this year so far so as the Green Hairstreak butterflies are emerging a trip to Whixall moss in Shropshire seems appropriate.
arriving early ish , for me anyhow!      i walk out onto the mosses to have a look to see if any Hairstreaks are in the usual places.
  on the way i am constantly looking for any other bugs to photograph and have just found a "March fly"  a bit late as usual lol

 i have used iso 400 to allow more background light into the exposure,using the flash to freeze the fly for sharp detail ,this gives a more natural image.

         arriving at the crossroads area i soon spot what I'm looking for, a Green Hairstreak.
         They are being very flighty and not settling for very long, also a bit out of reach :(

                             a beautifully perched Dungfly , using same method as in previous image       

            At last i have managed a Hairstreak shot, not great but ok.  natural light only for this shot

Moving on now and heading off the mosses towards the canal.  as i get near the towpath a  holly blue flys past but doesn't settle :(     a Nursery web spider gets a quick shot though............

             onto the next Hairstreak hot spot but cant seen many flying here on the edge of the mosses.

                                just managed to bag this Hairstreak shot , a bit lucky!

 There have been a few Orange tips flying along the canal towpath and this one looks great as a wide angle image.

Moving in for a closer view :) 

A Portrait of a Shield bug with Mpe-65 macro lens

                                               and a golden Dungfly to finish of the day

                                                 The end of a good macro days shooting.

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

Whixall Moss Butterflies & Bees May 14th

Another trip to whixall moss on the welsh/Shropshire border.  it was a warm day , still a bit breezy but hopefully the green hairstreaks will be in a nice mood to be photographed :))
a quick look at the normal section just on the moss at the crossroads produced nothing , so a fast walk along to the canal section i shot all the butterflies on the previous week.  it appears that most of the dandelion flowers that lined the towpath had gone over , which drastically reduces the number of opportunities to shoot bees !  but plenty of blossom :)

It was soon evident that butterfly numbers where way down on the previous week , a brief glimpse of a holly blue was all i spotted, but soon found a few recently emerged large red Damselflies , which perched very nicely:)

Eventually i came to the wooden platform where all the green hairstreaks where last week!   they were still there , but very flighty and took a lot of chasing lol , but eventually managed a few good shots.

They really are a beautiful species :)   and amazingly i managed to get one on my finger!!!!!!

A Cold Bee needed warming up!

Leaving this area to continue down to the end section to hopefully find some Dandelion flowers to shoot some miner bees. but just a few meters down the tow path and i spotted a Hairstreak feeding on a daisy flower! i have never seen this before and spent about 5 minutes shooting it , just had to get a good shot of this!

At the bottom end there where plenty of the required flowers , but first a female Orange tip was feeding!    it stayed in the same position for ages , so managed to focus stack a few frames on this image!

I soon found the miner bees , a passing cloud cooled the temperature down enough for this one to stay still while i shot it with mpe-65 macro lens at about x4 magnification:)  what a wonderful image!  my fav of the day.

Then i found a cold Nomada bee , that wanted to be warmed up also:D  most Miner & Nomada species need warmth to fly , so when a cloud blocks the sun, the Bees cool down sufficiently to prevent them flying!

5 frames focus stacked to increase depth of field, shot one handed by resting mpe lens barrel on my palm while shooting!  holding finger in front of a dandelion flower for background colour!

And yet another cold Miner bee , which looked like it had curled up to sleep inside the flower!  lol

Enough of shooting the Bees , these few shots were more than i expected so back looking for Butterflies :)    Brimstones were noticeable by their absence but eventually found one perched nicely:)

And finally , an Orange tip feeding hard, which allowed me to shoot its portrait at high magnification with mpe lens, focus stacked 5 frames , f6.3 iso 100  handheld, resting left elbow on knee to brace camera to keep frames aligned.

                                                 The end of another great days shooting:)

                               all images shot with canon 5d2,100mmL & mpe-65 macro lens