Encounters at Paxton Pits

Today I helped with a Guided Walk at Paxton for U3A Sawston Bird Group - lots to see including various insects such as this Hornet, which I couldn't get a clear view of through the leaves but this has added a pictorial vignette, which I like. Also shown Variable and Common Damselflies, Craneflies, Scorpion Flies, a Grizzled Skipper and also lots of birds including the final very confiding Dunnock. 

Paxton Insects and Fungi

The Hornets are still busy at their nest in an old tree trunk at Paxton. I took one or two close-ups but decided discretion was the better option on a warm day when they were very active. It was UK Fungus Day yesterday (World Fungus week from 4th) and Hunts Fungi Group led our Annual survey of Rory's wood area and listed 40 different species - some were collected to check their ID. 

Diversity in Garden Insects

The diversity of insects even in a relatively small garden is huge. Here two families -  Bees and Wasps and Hoverflies. The Hornet is our largest visitor to the garden - at the moment enjoying rotting fruit, with the Lasioglossum bees some of the smallest (here inside a single floret of Ragwort). The Hoverflies have all types of mimics including the Hornet mimic Volucella zonaria

 

RPS Nature Group Outing in an Autumnal Day

The Covid Regulation group of six braved the wind and dull light to photograph a variety of insects and fungi at Paxton on Sunday. Our finds included this very sleepy Hornet, a Lassioglossum bee, Male Chironomid midge with the amazing antennae, a jade-green Leafhopper, Wasp with prey, Greenbottle and several fungi including Shaggy Pholiota and a stemmed Puffball. I was experimenting to see whether flash or no flash worked best with shiny insects - overall I prefer the no flash but with light as bad as Sunday the flash did help keep the ISO down - as it was some were shot as high as ISO12800

Close Up on Hornet and Bee

I decided to have a try at focus stacking a dead Hornet and Pantaloon Bee that I had collected over the summer before they completely fell apart. These are stacks 40 images F5.6 iso 200 lit by daylight lamps on each side. Amazing detail is brought out including all the detritus. The ' pantaloons' of the bee are its pollen gathering organs and you can see here how much pollen has been caught by the hairs.

Wimpole Walk

Another warm sunny day so a walk down from Eversden Woods to Wimpole Hall Gardens via the Folly gave lots of high contrast images. The dahlia is a stacked image -17 images using the Focus bracketing facility on the Fuji. More success with these hornets with flash on the macro lens but only attempted this once as they didn't like me that close!!