Leaf-cutter ants

Spent some time studying and photographing these leaf-cutter ants. They cut and carry the leaf pieces back to the nest as fodder for the fungi that then feed the young. I was intrigued by the presence on many of the leaf fragments of 'passenger' ants - always smaller than the ant carrying the leaf.

Update from Web

This is a known behaviour - the smaller ants climb on to guard the larger ant carrying the leaf

Saturday afternoon

Tynemouth Station hosts an indoor market every Saturday and Sunday - a wonderful miscellany of stalls.
A visit to Blyth beach with its Battle emplacement, beach huts and wind turbines was very enjoyable in warm September sunshine.

Toy Museum

Wonderful collection of Toys in this Museum on Tynemouth front. The owner was there to chat to and has been collecting toys into this museum for 20 years. Gave me a chance for a lot of nostalgia - even found some Bayko - my favourite toy as a kid.

Sunrise In Tynemouth

Some images of this morning's dawn at Tynemouth. The sky was completely clear at sunrise

giving beautiful colours in the sky and reflected on the water.

Cloud built up very shortly after the sun rose and produced som lovely colours in the sky

Evening Light at Tynemouth

A couple of images from a walk along the beach yesterday evening. The old sea bathing pool has been added to my collection!!

Off to Tynemouth

Off up to Tynemouth and not sure if I will have email so may be a few days gap in the Blog!

This Arctic Tern was shot in Northumberland two years ago in June but the sky is just as blue today

A Sunny Afternoon

On a warm sunny afternoon, the dragonfly pools beckoned and provided some fascinating subjects. The blue damselfly in the first image shared its twig with a spider, a red-eyed fly and a snail. The spider seemed more frightened by the damsefly than vice versa.
The Emerald Damselfly is a very attractive insect with a beautiful emerald green thorax.
The Red Darters were busy egg laying on the surface of the pond - I loved the silhouettes against the reflected sky.

Still Trying Flying Dragons and Damsels

I have borrowed a 300mm 2.8 lens as I have been wondering whether the faster lens would perform better than my 100-400mm lens when trying to follow flying dragonflies (anyway my 100-400 is away having the friction ring repaired). The answer is yes though, as it was mostly cloudy this afternoon, there weren't any dragonflies only a few damsels to fully test the theory.

Therfield Fields

Great sky today so took the infrared for a spin in Therfield area. Surprisingly few bales around even though many fields have been harvested. Still quite a lot of standing corn so will have another go next week

Foraging for Nectar

A couple of pictures from a walk round Wimpole walled garden today. The image of the bee covered in pollen is not very sharp - it was moving a bit quickly for my chosen shutterspeed but I wanted to share the image of the insect almost obliterated by pollen.

Paxton Pits Dragonflies

I wanted to get a good image of a flying Brown Hawker but failed dismally to get any in focus. I felt a bit of compensation with this image of a blue damselfly feeding off another insect - looks like a mayfly but not sure.
The trio of Blue Damselflies with their reflections also was surprisingly sharp.
Red Darters flying in tandem worked reasonably well but I prefer the pair in the tree with one coyly looking round a leaf.
Finally a Water Boatman - difficult to portray the fact that it is hanging on the underside of the water surface.

Bye Bye to the Swallows

Our garage is full of roosting swallows each evening at the moment (presumably young from the two broods that were raised in the garage this year). They are making an awful mess but it is a privilidge to be ab le to get so close to them. They will soon be off to Africa - not sure if the adults go first as with cuckoos or whether the families go together.

Three Cambridge Images

Exotic Visitors to the Garden

Phil found this caterpillar wandering across our patio. I thought Elephant Hawkmoth caterpillars were usually green but apparently the dark version is more common. They both have the characteristic large 'eyes' behind the true head. They feed on Willowherbs or Fuchsia. Our one does not appear full grown in size and started eating as soon as it was offered Lesser Willowherb leaves.
I put out the moth trap last night - there were not many moths in the morning but a very impressive Hornet had been attracted to the light. Here are a couple of shots as it warmed up the wings and then flew off.

Diverse Diptera

Five different species of flies that were feeding on the Solidago this afternoon. These were taken with the 100mm macro - it was quite windy so I needed to work at 800 ISO to get sufficient speed and aperture. I would like a little more depth of field so will try again on a calm day with a tripod (if any flies will stay still long enough!)