In Flight at RSPB Sandy

Bright sunny day - ideal for attempting to capture insects in flight and RSPB Sandy had a plethora of wonderful subjects to practise on including  the aggressive-looking Bee-wolf Wasps, the 'cuddly, Green-eyed bees, athletic Hummingbird Hawkmoths, feeding Carder bees and the very long legged Sand Wasp

Hummingbird Hawkmoth and Painted Lady

Arrived out of nowhere and gone in a minute or two but great to have Hummingbird Hawkmoth visit the garden along with a couple of Painted Ladies. Initial shutterspeed 1/250th increased to 1/4000th - probably somewhere in between would give enough movement to give a feel of hovering. Painted Ladieswere very confiding.

Art in the Garden

Sometimes my two major interests, Art and Nature, come together as with this red bug on part of an ornamental bird feeder that has corroded to some beautiful colours. The second image intrigued me until I realised that it is the result of an insect chewing through areas of the flower bud which is pleated much as we do to make paper cuts (eg paper doilies). Otherwise a few more gems from my garden including a Wolf Spider species with very newly hatched spiderlets on its back, male and female Large-headed Resin Bee plus one in the jaws of a Labyrinth Spider and Hummingbird hawkmoth eye - the species list will be very long by the end of this season.

Action at Lackford Lakes

A very enjoyable day at Lackford Lakes with CCC Nature Group. I concentrated on two 'projects': macro with wide angle lens (to follow!) and action shots of birds and insects. The Dragonflies and the Hummingbird Hawkmoth were taken at 1/4000th except the first image, at 1/1000th - surprised that there is little difference in wing movement (the Darter was on electronic shutter and shows the bend in the wing). The Migrant Hawkers were hovering for quite extended periods in the strong breeze! The bird were at 1/2000th - I do like the levitating Nuthatch. The Hummingbird Hawkmoth was quite worn around the tail area but was still very manoeuvrable. The eyes are wonderful - I am on an insect vision project at the moment so very useful captures.

Hummingbird Hawkmoth

 This wonderful moth visited our garden and put on a great display The light was not great being under an apple tree so I could only get  shutterspeeds of a 1/2000th (most) and 1/1000th (images 2 and 7). The body is kept amazingly stable with very flexible wing movements