Oystercatchers at Hunstanton

 I returned to Hunstanton beach on Monday morning before heading home and spent a couple of hours in beautiful light with thousands and thousands of birds as subjects. The tide was going out revealing the extensive mussel beds and the tidal sands full of invertebrate food. Oystercatchers were the most numerous so here some cameos of this striking bird. The distant shot was part of a failed attempt to focus stack the huge flocks!

Sharpenhoe 11th August

Although nowhere near as many as on bumper years, we were pleased to find a good number of Chalkhill male and female butterflies along with Burnet moths. I was trying to anticipate flight shots and achieved a few I like including a Burnet Moth and Knapweed amd the Carpenter Bee approaching a Harebell.

Wasp's Attempt at Theft Foiled

My eye was caught by this wasp trying to steal prey from a spider's web. It had just about sawn off the fly's head  to take away when the spider Enoplognatha spp) arrived arrived on the scene. The wasp tried to escape but it was caught by strands of the web until its struggles broke the connection and it flew away. Interesting it had its sting out in the final frame - wonder if the spider or wasp would have won if it had not got free.

 

Life in a Barley Field

It was cold and breezy for out RPS Nature Group visit to Strumpshaw - not ideal for dragonflies or flying insects so we struggled in the morning to find good subjects for our macrophotography. In the afternoon some of us visited a local barley field which was sheltered from the wind and full of insects. here a few more successful images among quite a few more!!

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.