A Great Time for Dragons

We spent Friday afternoon at the Dragonfly pools which were teeming with different species. They were all very active in the heat so only managed one flight shot - of Common Darters and this wasn't great! Plenty of Emperors laying everywhere, also more Red-Eyed Damselflies than I have seen before, including battallions on the water ready for take off. Over the fields and along the hedgerows Migrant Hawkers (with Brown Hawkers) were busy catching insects. A real summer idyll showing what can be achieved by organic farming!!

Buzzards and Butterflies at Barton

The four resident Buzzards at Barton objected strongly to our presence by the pools on Monday and came to view us at close quarters a couple of times. The Beetle Bank, like the rest of the verges, has suffered from the dry spell but there are still enough Knapweeds and Thistles to support large numbers of Argus Brown, Common Blues and Green-Veined Whites.

Dragonflies at Burwash Pools Barton

I failed to get many species flying as I hoped - just some shots of an Emperor- but it was good to see many different species at the Dragonfly Pools. (Emerald coupled, Blue-tail and Common Blue Damselflies, Ruddy Darter, Brown Hawker, Four-spot chaser and female emperoro egg laying)

Watching the Skies

After a mostly cloudy day, the skies cleared in the early evening to give a beautiful clear end to the day. We walked up to the radio telescopes at Barton to check out the route for a CCC outing on Thursday and I couldn't resist a few IR images. Very interesting scarecrow!!

Flying Bees and Friends at Barton

A few insects from an early visit to Barton. Honeybees were busy collecting different coloured pollen from flowers while Hoverflies and Common Blue butterflies were getting on the wing. Particularly liked the colours of the Geometrid caterpillar and the small Hemipteran bug.

A Sea of Red Poppies, Cambridgeshire

Some of our local fields are awash with poppies at the moment. I tried different lenses, positions and even a double exposure or two to try and capture their vibrance.