Activity After the Rain

As well as the expected snail activity, there were quite a few insects that became active once the rain had eased off. The Bee Grabber fly was waiting patiently near the comfrey flowers for a passing Bumble Bee to jump onto and get taken back to the bee nest where it will lay its eggs. The larvae then consume the bee larvae food and the larvae themselves. A new plant bug Dicyphus bolivari? and some strange antics by the Long-Jawed Orb Spider - need another opinion on what is going on - ? shed skin or the end of a brief encounter with a male!!

Wider Angle Macro

 As my 60mm macro stopped focusing suddenly and seems to be permanently, I tried my 18-45 mm lens with the Raynox close-up filter. Here a few examples of what is still active in my Cambridge garden. Most taken at the 45mm end but the Cricket and Flower spider were at the 18mm end.

Garden Snails

Making a start on identifying the snails in the garden with these species that were on the move yesterday morning after a damp night. 

Paxton Snails

On Monday, I spent the day with Richard Preece at Paxton surveying some of the molluscs that live there. We only managed two areas but from that Richard identified 31 species.  The Caddis Fly that inhabited this case obviously had a liking for snails' shells - many might still have been alive when added and carried around. Some of the snails had very interesting origins such as image 4, a very small snail with a very long name Potamopyrgus antipodarum an immigrant all the way from New Zealand, and a bivalve (no.5) spread here from Asia. The grid is 5mm so you can see how small some of these were.

Pasque Flowers for Easter

The Pasque flowers are out early on Royston Heath and are there in large numbers. It was a bit windy today for flower photography but I enjoyed trying a few different techniques and also finding some mini creatures - spiders, snails, fly, caterpillar and a Red-tailed Mason bee that makes its nest in snail's shells!