Macro Session at Paxton

The sky was cloudless on Thursday morning for our macro photography session at Paxton so I decided to go for dramatic portraits and therefore  look for situations where the subject was lit against darker backgrounds (normally I would be looking for even lighting to bring out as many details as possible for identification!). The Jade Hopper is always one of my favourite subjects (except it is very small!!). There were plenty of Grasshoppers/Crickets and other Hoppers though the Wasp Spider was catching as many as it could. Close ups of  Darters and Norfolk Hawker faces gave some good macro practice as they rested on sunlit branches.

July Survey of East Scrub Paxton

In the hot weather, insects tend to move under leaves into the shade to prevent overheating so we were not surprised that there did not appear to be many species to record during our Thursday July survey of East Scrub. However, a bit of hunting around in the vegetation revealed quite a variety of subjects. Great to phoograph both Willow Emerald and Emerald Damseflies, Picture-wing Fly, several species of Grasshoppers, Moths and Flies.   ID sheets are at the end together with a few more pictorial portraits.

Redland's Triangle Survey at Paxton

For our monthly wildlife survey at Paxton, we concentrated on an area of Redlands that is particularly good for Wasp Spiders later in the season so were not surprised at the number of Grasshoppers (wasp spider dinners) present in the long-grass areas. Delighted to find a Red-tipped Clearwing, 2 Marbled Whites and several Small Heaths. The plant tally was equally long!! ID sheets at end.

Rainy Morning at Sharpenhoe

We decided to continue with our RPS Nature Group outing to Sharpenhoe despite a pessimistic forecast. In fact, the light rain didn't prevent us finding and photographing insects etc and by the afternoon it had stopped. Here some Male and Female Chalkhill Blues found roosting among the vegetation, a very fine Wasp Spider with its Grasshopper prey and some of the mating Burnet moths. 

Early Morning Sharpenhoe

I was interested in the effect of shade, cloud and direct sunlight on the colours and appeal of images. Clouds covered the sun when we arrived at Sharpenhoe yesterday morning but these cleared as the sun came above the ridge. All single shots except image 10 which is a focus stack of 10 images.