Meet Misumena our Macrophotography Model

Yesterday the RPS and CCC Nature Groups held a very informative Macro workshop led by David Smith of OM-Systems. Although he had his own model, Frankie, the Ghost Mantis, I think Misumena 1 and Misumena 2, a couple of flower spiders, stole the show. This is M2 parading rather attractive dark green patches and stripes - excellent for hiding in Meadow Sweet flowers.  They can change colour (not sure of the timescale of the changes) and often those in Buttercups are bright yellow. 

These are mainly single shots at F13-F18 but the last two are an in-camera jpeg stack versus a stack done from Raws in Zerene stacker.

Snow Buntings

 It is not often that a species gets a blog to itself but the Snow Buntings at Titchwell on Sunday occupied us for much of the morning and were a delight to photograph as they lured us further and further along the beach. Difficult conditions as there was a very strong wind so sand was blowing up and sometimes obscuring the birds. I like the three birds with recession in the second image and the last image would make a very tricky jigsaw!

Garden Safari - Powers of Camouflage

While hunting for insects in my small meadow area, I became aware of a very small spider on top of a dandelion head. It is about 3mm long, called Zilla diodia, and quickly camouflaged itself as a bract. An equally crafty Dock Bug took the appearance of Buddleia bark complete with hole while the Zebra spider's stripes broke up its outline as it ran around. Finishing with a range of other mini inhabitants of the garden.

Drought Declared in East Anglia

A few images from an early walk in Toft where everything other than large trees are now the colour of straw. The Hares and Rabbits and our Golden Retriever, Ted,  matched with the environment perfectly.

Dorset 17 When Camouflage Does Not Work

On the morning of our last full day in Kingcombe, we stayed around locally in the morning and were both delighted and dismayed to find a Peppered Moth (and a Lobster Moth) to photograph. Having recorded it on the window sill, I thought it would be good to show how well its camouflage worked on the wall but immediately a False Widow Spider shot out of a hole and in seconds had subdued it with venom and started to wrap it in silk. The fourth image is a focus stack at F22 which demonstrates what our eye sees and just how good the camouflage is. Rest of post shows a few more species recorded during the morning.