Garden Activity Increases with Temperatures

There was a definite increase in activity among the mini-wildlife in the garden yesterday with the warmer temperatures at last. The Red Mason bees were found coupled in various areas, while this is the first time I have recorded mating Pardosa spiders. I am always happy to photograph the wonderfully spotty/stripey Speckled Bush Cricket nymphs with lots of other species including several Shield and other Bugs (Parent, Birch Catkin Bug, Green, Hairy). Lots of Large Red Damselflies and the first Azure Damselfly.

Macro Continued Using Extension Ring

I spent a bit of time yesterday, trying out my Zeiss 50mm lens with a 16 mm extension tube. It was difficult to handnold at the correct distance as the depth of field is very small even at F22 so I used a monopod to support the lens. The bee is less than a cm and most of the subjects much smaller so some cropping still needed. The second image is the larva of the Marmalade Hoverfly (image 3) - great for gardeners as eats aphids. 

 

Experimenting with Lens Reversal for Ultramacro

I built an adaptor to reverse my legacy Olympus 50mm lens onto my Fuji XT-1 to try some ultramacro shots. These are taken at F16, ISO 1600, 1/180 with a bit of fill-in flash. Not a great success rate as I was hand holding with quite windy conditions. I will use with a tripod on a still day and see if I can get a bit more consistency. 

Progress Report on Wildlife in Garden

I am very pleased that I chose 2020 to make changes to the garden to further encourage wildlife. Ten days before Covid-19 Lockdown started in the UK, I gave a lecture to a U3A group on Gardening for Wildlife  where I outlined my plans which included turning the front lawn to a wildlife meadow, opening up the pond to give more areas of open water, having an area of perennial wildflowers and a larger seed bed area for annual wildflowers. Two days ago the first Large Red Damselfly emerged from the pond, the cowslips are coming into full flower on the 'meadow, Red campion is starting in the perennial area. In March Sadie and I built a bee hotel at the bottom of the garden and it is being investigated by various insects

 

Damselflies and Life in the Spinach Patch

Yesterday saw the first Red Damselflies in any numbers in the garden, many newly emerged as in the 4th photo. The spinach bed is heaving with Shield bugs of various types, Flies and Solitary Bees. I am in the process of identifying all these. The Holly Blue butterfly is easier!

 

 

Lakenheath Spiders and Damsels

 Very few bird sightings at Lakenheath but lots of insect activity. As I had the 300mm with me, I used that with an extension ring. There were Common Darters and Ruddy Darters (mating pair); the latter has all black legs and a waisted abdomen. A number of damselflies and flies had got caught in spiders' webs. I like  the last shot as it show the silk being spun out of the spinnerets around the prey.