Nightingale Hunt

A friend was keen to hear Nightingales locally so, on Wednesday, it was off early to Paxton on a hunt for this elusive songster. There were plenty of birds singing and even showing themselves well including the Whitethroat and Chiffchaff and even a Robin with a crossed bill got in on the act. It was beginning to get a bit warm so I was hoping that we were going to succeed and, at last, that wonderful chuckling song rang out from the deep scrub and entertained us with its variety of 'tunes' for a long while flitting in and out of the dense scrub. I only managed a fleeting photo this time. On the walk back the Variable Damselflies and Banded Demoiselles were waking up and we had time for a quick visit to the hides to check on the heron chicks, Coots and Grebes. 

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. 

Banded Demoiselles - Life and Death

I spent a long while last week with the Banded Demoiselles at Trumpington enjoying their iridescent colour that changes from green to blue in sun and shade and was just enjoying this male when a Kite-tailed Robber Fly swooped down and carried it off into the bushes. It hung onto its prey despite me moving it to a more open position - a sad end for the Demoiselle! Other images - female demoiselle and male Banded Demoiselles displaying on the water lilies at Byron's Pool

Butterfly and Dragonfly Survey Paxton

 Definitely lower numbers of Butterflies for our June Survey at Paxton but Dragonflies made up for it with large numbers of Common blue damselflies plus a few Azure and Variable and, mostly strikingly, very large numbers of Emerald damsels and in areas not previously recorded. Here a few images from the day, including male and female Emeralds and Banded Demoiselles, a species of  Potter Wasp, a Red-tipped Clearwing and  Wilke's mining Bee

Demoiselles and Damselflies Fen Drayton

The mixture of sunshine and showers yesterday was excellent for photographing Damselflies and Demoiselles. Mainly I relied on choosing insects that were separated sufficiently from their backgrounds to allow a single exposure to get a satisfactory image as with this Red-eyed Damselfly. Then along comes a Banded Demoiselle with a Mayfly breakfast and lands right in the reeds. The single shot was very muddled so I tried a focus stack. Realising the background red stalks would distract, I moved to the front but then a focus stack did not have enough depth so concentrated just on the head as it munched its way through the Mayfly.