Lark Rise Farm Barton

Although the insects were far fewer than last year, we did find a good variety of species some like the Beetles on the Carrot seed heads were numerous. Here a few 'portraits' of the more attractive species (depending of course on your appreciation of the insect world!!). The minute Tephrid flies (4mm) with their irridescent eyes were a particular challenge as they didn't stay still for long

Local Spiders

This year is an exceptional one for wasp spiders (Argiope bruennichi) in our area but there were several more species during recent visits to Barton and Paxton including Araneus quadratus, the Garden spider (Araneus diadematus), Pardosa sp. and Tetragnatha striata

New Year Walk at Barton

We took a walk round the fields at Barton hoping to photograph a Hare or two. We briefly saw one retreating so here a miscellany from the morning. Several very smart -looking Reed Butings. There are a couple of very strange scarecrows - the one with dolls' heads is enough to scare anyone let alone a Crow. 

Barton Dragonfly Pools

I paid a brief visit to the dragonfly pools at Barton yesterday morning - there is a lot less water than previous years as the vegetation has grown up. There were Emperor, Southern Hawkers (no photo) and Common Darters. Just a few hurried shots plus a retreating Hare and a Heron.

Wasp Spiders - Focus Stacking Exercise

I must admit to being somewhat addicted to finding these impressive spiders and then trying to photograph them accurately. So when after 2 hours in the field rain stopped play, I found I had 25 or so photostacks (20 or 30 images per stack) occupying a lot of disk space. Of these 9 stacked OK in Zerene Stacker and here are six different views of three different individuals. It was quite breezy and the spider does tend to vibrate in the web if it senses an intruder so not surprised at low hit rate

Autumn Macro at Lark Rise Farm

Lark Rise Farm (Cambridgeshire) is definitely looking quite autumnal now with soft brown seed heads and grasses. So beautiful how the Common Darter female blended into its thistle perch, and the pattern created in the seed heads of the Sow Thistle, Carrot and Knapweed. Otherwise plenty of different flies around and a couple of Wasp Spiders now more than 5 cm across including the legs.