Paxton September Butterfly and Dragonfly Transect

For the first time this year, we had warm sunny weather (in the morning anyway) for our monthly Butterfly and Dragonfly Transcept. The counts were dominated by Common Darters and Willow Emerald Damselflies with Small Copper, Small White, Commas and Speckled Wood Butterflies the most frequent butterflies. We also had quite a few Migrant Hawkers and one Southern (on Blackberry).

Norfolk Day of Contrasts

Saturday dawned very wet in Norfolk  so we chose to visit a reserve with a hide - Hickling NWT. We spent a couple of hours there watching the Marsh Harriers and other birds including Bearded Tits, Reed Warblers and even a Water Rail. There were also several insects visible in the reeds to photograph. By lunch the rain had stopped and even a few glimpses of sun so we visited Horsey Gap tp walk on the beach and watch the seals and still heavy seas.

Demoiselles and Damselflies Fen Drayton

The mixture of sunshine and showers yesterday was excellent for photographing Damselflies and Demoiselles. Mainly I relied on choosing insects that were separated sufficiently from their backgrounds to allow a single exposure to get a satisfactory image as with this Red-eyed Damselfly. Then along comes a Banded Demoiselle with a Mayfly breakfast and lands right in the reeds. The single shot was very muddled so I tried a focus stack. Realising the background red stalks would distract, I moved to the front but then a focus stack did not have enough depth so concentrated just on the head as it munched its way through the Mayfly.

 

Open Photography Day at Paxton

The  light winds and relatively warm conditions yesterday encouraged the damselflies and even an emerging 4-Spotted Chaser to show themselves for our 40 plus visitors to Paxton Pits Open Day yesterday.  Thanks to the CCC and RPS Nature groups members who came and assisted in the field, David Smith from OM-Systems for providing a tutorial on Macrophotography and Ann and Mike Thomas and other Friends of Paxton Pits Volunteers for running the practical side. From the emails received the day was obviously greatly appreciated. Here a few snaps from the day.

 

Insects at Paxton Pits June 9th

On Sunday, I did a quick survey of what was around in the areas that we will use for macrophotography at today's Open Day at Paxton Pits. There are still lots of Scorpion flies around - particularly interesting to see a pair mating while snacking on a Damselfly caught in a spider's web.