Walk at Trumpington Meadows

A very enjoyable walk at Trumpington Meadows with sharp-eyed friends so we managed to find several Small Blues, some mating and laying for a second brood, Gatekeepers along with some Meadow Browns (mated pair) and Brown Argus and Burnet Moths everywhere, again often coupled. We also had brief views of two migrant visitors - Clouded Yellow and Painted Lady. The last two are images are of two of the many spiders - Misumena  vatia and Enoplognatha ovata. The bee took my eye as being different but the conclusion seems to be that it is too worn and faded to be identified!! Update - as Ann T had a good face shot, it is now identified as Bombus ruderatus

Ely in Monochrome

 The clouds when we met up in Ely Marketplace streaked across the whole sky - ideal subjects for the pocket-sized Sony RX100 that I had converted to infrared some years ago. By the time we walking through the Park to the river for lunch, the clouds had cleared and the vegetation was very bright with the amount of IR being omitted.

Ely Multiexposures

We spent an enjoyable few hours in Ely photographing with fellow Camera Club Members - a wonderfully laid back city (Free Parking!) dominated by the Cathedral which still has some Xmas decorations around - spot the Christmas Pudding. We had some tasks but I didn't get further than 1. 'Double Take: Any technique can be used to produce an image that comprises two or more separate elements' and 2. 'Monochrome' - to follow.  The last two images are straight shots where copper-stained water has created mini-cityscapes.

Paxton Water Surveys 2026

Disappointed that I didn't have longer looking at the samples taken for the first of the Water Quality survey at Paxton Pits today due to a clash of events but I did get to do a few photographs of the very small insects/invertebrates that needed further magnification such as these very attractive Pond Weed bugs (about 3 mm). Their latin name is Mesovelia furcata. It is usually wingless but winged forms do occur. It lives round the margins of well vegetated ponds. Its eggs (about 100) are inserted in water plants. Also pleased to identify a Soldier Fly larva as I wasn't aware the larvae were aquatic till today though the adults do frequent marshy areas. I wonder if there is an ID group fro these as with Hoverfly larvae. (ID sheet at the end)

July Survey of East Scrub Paxton

In the hot weather, insects tend to move under leaves into the shade to prevent overheating so we were not surprised that there did not appear to be many species to record during our Thursday July survey of East Scrub. However, a bit of hunting around in the vegetation revealed quite a variety of subjects. Great to phoograph both Willow Emerald and Emerald Damseflies, Picture-wing Fly, several species of Grasshoppers, Moths and Flies.   ID sheets are at the end together with a few more pictorial portraits.