Macro at Paxton

 Yesterday we had a Macro day at Paxton for Volunteers and were lucky with the weather - mainly bright and not too windy especially in the morning. Several wasp Spiders located - this one has a Dark Bush Cricket prey. Other favourites were the Vapourer moth caterpillar, the Green Leaf Hopper and the various stages of the Dock Bug. Large numbers of Migrant Hawkers on the wing and pleased to photograph for the first time a Small Red-eyed Damselfly

Wasp Spiders Galore

It seems to be a good year for Wasp Spiders at Paxton. We found well over a dozen during a survey of quite small area of the Pits. Mostly they were in groups of two or three which I haven't seen before (or anyway noticed). Here are a few photographed with different techniques - either smallish aperture so good depth of field or focus-stacked with a narrow DOF.  The first image is an image stacked with Zerene stacker software while the second is an in-camera jpg stack. 

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. 

Summer Leys Macro Day

While photographing these rain drops at Summer Leys Nature Reserve early yesterday morning my eyes fell upon a Wasp Spider in its web - apparently a first for their reserve so the jungle drums beat (or more likely the internet buzzed) and, by lunchtime, lots of photographers arrived to see the spider. There were plenty of macro subjects in good light with sheltered still areas for them to display - ideal for a day out for the RPS Nature Group.

Paxton Insect Survey

 This German Wasp was one of the nearly 100 species that I recorded on Tuesday while surveying the Arable Fields at Paxton Pits. Other striking species were the Wasp Spider, Bishop's Mitre Shield Bug and Pea Weevil, Grasshoppers, Crickets and various flies.