Showing posts with label Swallowtail. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Swallowtail. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 15, 2021

RPS Visit to Strumpshaw Fen

 The weather for our Nature Group visit to Strumpshaw was hot and sunny - should have been just right for Swallowtails but, alas, this year they are in short supply as for other butterfly species. A few of us did photograph one that stayed for a few moments on a thistle in the Meadow. Dragonflies, on the other hand, were plentiful with Four-spotted Chasers (1-3)  and Scarce Chasers (4-6) and Norfolk Hawkers (7,8) the principal performers. I was trying different 'artistic approaches so quite a variety of backgrounds etc!






Monday, June 3, 2019

Strumpshaw RSPB Dragons and Butterflies

Yesterday's Nature Group/East Anglia RPS outing to Strumpshaw Fen coincided with the warmest day of the year with max. temperature of 28 degrees so plenty of Dragonfly and Butterfly activities but not much keeping still. We did manage a good range of species including the Scarce Chaser (female and male), Black-tailed Skimmer, Four-Spot Chaser, Red-Eyed Damselfly, Banded Demoiselle, Azure and Variable Damselflies, Brimstone and Swallowtail. We also were shown Norfolk Hawkers in flight but failed to capture an image! (other insects to follow!!)

Friday, May 10, 2019

Butterflies and Dragonflies Majorca

Lovely to see a Swallowtail Butterfly (egg laying as well as nectaring) at the S'Albufera reserve yesterday, along with a Long-Tailed Blue. Dragonflies were more numerous than previously with Common Darter and Black-Tailed Skimmer photographed and ?Emperor hawking the reeds. Speckled Bush Cricket put on a good display while the bees that inhabit strange clay nests (?provided or built by them) all round the visitor centre.
 
 

Sunday, June 11, 2017

Strumpshaw Fen on a Warm but Windy Day

It was a bit too windy for insect photography today but managed to snap three of Strumpshaw's special species: Scarce Chaser, Norfolk Hawker and Swallowtail Butterfly. Also Red-eyed Damselfly, Marsh Orchid, Heliophilus pendulens, Eristalis species, Tortoiseshell feeding and Nursery Web Spider


Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Strumpshaw Fen

Sunday's forecast predicted a warmer and less windy day than lately so we made a visit to Strumpshaw Fen, predicting that Swallowtail butterflies and various dragonflies would be on the move. Certainly there were Swallowtails all over the reserve and some dragonflies including this very hairy Hairy Dragonfly.

Although we found some interesting things to photograph, generally there were fewer insects around than a typical mid June visit. The spiders were the most abundant particularly the spiderlet balls everywhere. I also photographed the Furrow Orb Weaver, a Long-Jawed spider (Tetracnathidae family) and a beautiful Cucmber Spider (Araniella cucurbitina).


 Among the other interesting species was the Ruby-tailed Wasp Chrysis ignata which looks like a minute fly, the hoverfly that mimics a bumble-bee  Volucella bombylans and the Scorpion fly Panorpa communis this one a female without the 'sting'.

Ann Miles Photography - My Favourite Images of the Past10 years or so