Orchids, Moths etc at Buxton Heath

Buxton Heath outing was one of the highlights of this year for me with its wide variety of specialized heathland species many of which we managed to see. Here the Marsh Helleborine with its abundant  population of small insects, Southern Marsh Orchids, Beautiful Yellow Underwing caterpillar, Fox Moth caterpillar and Rusty Tussock moth flightless female egg laying. Final three Hoverfly Eristalinus sepulchre, Five-spot Burnet and the Bog Cricket

Dorset 14. Studland Beach and Nature Reserve

We visited Studland Nature Trust Nature reserve last Thursday on a really hot day and, after a morning recording some of the wildlife speicalities of the area, had lunch on Shell Beach playing with slow shutterspeed and multiple exposure. The species shown are Raft Sspider, Emperor moth caterpillar, Meadow Grasshopper, Keeled Skimmer, Dune Robberfly, Red Wood Ant and Sundew

Outing to Kings Cross 3. The Environs including Nature Reserve

Our route on Saturday took us through Coal Drops Yard - now a fashionable place to shop (and hold Hen Parties), past the Gasometer apartments and Garden and then back along the Canal to the London Wildlife Trust Reserve where we were captivated by the hundreds of Ermine Moth caterpillars that had stripped the spindle trees and were descending on silk threads.

Wonders of Camouflage

 It has been a busy week with RPS Assessments and continued work on identifying the 100 or so photos from a wildlife survey at Paxton but I have continued with trying to perfect techniques for very small subjects. We have a lot of Tansy and Carrot flower and seed heads in the garden and on close inspection all kinds of well camouflaged insects/spiders live there. Here some plant bugs, a fly and a green spider -each only a few mm long. Using a continuous light panel to be able to shoot with a smaller aperture.

Elephant Hawkmoth Caterpillar

Always exciting to find these very large caterpillars in the garden - feeding on the Greater Willowherb. I decided to practise my focus stacking on them. I used pegs to hold a branch of the plant upright and away from the plant to give a simple background. The first stack is 30 images with an LED continuous light at the front - not enough to have the flower in focus as well the caterpillar; the second is 45 images and has the light a bit further away and from the top so the stem is now defined

Garden Safari

The garden full of wild flowers such as Wild Carrot, Oxeye Daisies, Knapweed, Evening Primrose and Ragwort. Hence there are lots of interesting wildlife to hunt down and capture. Here a Tephritid fly, Plant Bug (Deraeocoris ruber), Toadflax Brocade, Cinnabar moth, Empis fly, Ichneumon wasp injecting egg into grub in a daisy, Green Bug (Lygocoris pabulinus), spider that has caught a mating pair of Hoverflies and a Speckled Bush Cricket