Close Encounters by the Garden Pond

Sitting quietly in the shade by my pond cooling down after attacking a few over enthusiastic brambles etc, I was visited by this very beautiful male Southern Hawker. He spent a long while going round the edges of the pond and also inspecting me. After a while he flew away and a female arrived again flying right up to me but this time dropping down onto the moss at my feet and started laying. They were never there together so did he communicate with the female as to a good area for laying and how? (Four other pond inhabitants include the Pirate Water spider Pirata piraticus) 

 

Paxton East Redlands

The long grass edges to the paths on East Redlands were very productive with lots of Banded Demoiselles, Darters and  Damsel flies; one of the Common Blue Damselflies had been caught by the first Wasp Spider I have spotted this year. At last, with the warmer temperatures there were lots Butterflies - Brown Argus, Common Blue  and Essex Skippers, plus a very active Bumble Bee mimicking Hoverfly. 

Third Water Survey at Paxton Pits

Yesterday, we did the last of this year's three water fauna surveys at Paxton Pits - here are a few of the creatures we found. The IDs are tentative in some cases where the diagnostic features are difficult to see in a photo. Others, like the leeaches are easier where the species are separated by the numbers and positioning of the eyes.

Olympus 'Tough' Camera

Like many people who enjoy photography, I have accumulated quite a few cameras over my very long photographic journey. Yesterday I 'played' with my Olympus Tough (G6) purchased when I was going on a trip to Antigua 5 years ago.  This and a trip to South Africa 20 years ago were my only two 'big' holidays and were partly chosen to try and fulfill a lifetime ambition to snorkel among the Coral reefs. Unfortunately the African attempt proved futile as the recommended beach for wading out had breakers about 4 metres high and in Antigua again the seas proved too rough to safely snorkel, so now I give it occasional water outings such as yesterday at Paxton pits but also find it a very adequate pocket camera for recording insects etc when taking a walk. It has a supermacro mode that allowed me to photograph the very small Weevil in the centre of a Ragwort floret