Beetle Mania Lakenheath

The first images are of Athous haemorrhoidalis, a Click Beetle, taking off - they use the legs and wings to get airborne rather than the spring (Click) mechanism which allows them to jump rapidly when threatened. A variety of other beetles and plant bugs found on Wednesday including some eggs (?Hemiptera species) and first instar Spiked Bugs.

Fun with the Kingfishers

This young kingfisher (white tip to beak) was one of a party of 4 kingfishers flying around and fishing at Paxton yesterday. It made several dives but wasn't successful! I used the fast drive to record consecutive flight shots as it dived and then aligned them to make a composite (image 2). The dive down shows how the speed increases as it dives down (greater spacing of consecutive images). Unfortunately the return to perch was not so successful composite as the bird flew forward of the focus zone (my camera is not good enough autofocus to track this). The last two are of the adult male (longer completely black beak, unspeckled breast etc) in the distance.

 

Dorset 11 Lyme Regis

On the Tuesday of our trip, we visited Lyme Regis on a very hot bright day. I mainly concentrated on the people enjoying the location in the strong contrasty light. The artist was perfectly dressed for the location while the young provided entertainment leaping off the cob, canoeing, paddling etc. There was, of course, just sitting enjoying the view and sunshine or a gentle game of bowls.

Experimenting with Fuji Pre-shots

Fuji have incorporated the ability to store images in the buffer prior to pressing the shutter which is a great asset for action photography. So here some shots I would have struggled with or been unable to capture without it from a diving  Goldeneye (spent lots of time previously trying to get this sequence) to a jumping Jackdaw going up to some feeders.