Studland and Swanage

 For the final day of our CCC trip to Dorset, we visited Studland Beach and Swanage. The large wood Ants kept me amused for a long while carrying prey larger than themselves. We found two different stages of the Emperor moth caterpillar.  The beach was very busy as it was a very warm sunny day (again!). We finished off at SWanage with a trip on the pier.

Demoiselles and Flies

We spent a hot morning in Kingcombe Meadows with the Beautiful Demoiselles and the afternoon along the railway track at Toller Porcorum with some amazing flies.

Chesil Beach and Portland Quarry

 Another sunny hot day which we spent photographing the flowers and scenery along Chesil Beach (above) and Portland Quarry (below)..

Higher Kingcombe, Dorset

We are having fantastic weather on our Annual CCC trip to Kingcombe in Dorset. Hot and sunny so far and Damsel flies are in abundance even in the early morning mist. Andrea is looking after us wonderfully as usual at Higher Kingcombe Lodge

Macro World in Our Cambridgeshire Garden

I am aiming to record the invertebrate life in our garden this year as fully as possible so I spent an hour lurking in the undergrowth today seeing what was living there. I now realise why the Frog Hopper is so named - it is responsible for the Cuckoo Spit foam on plant stems around its young (green nymphs). The Shield Bugs and Scorpion fly were good finds with several other species of fly not yet identified. I hope to get identifications and then post them on my Toft Invertebrates Blog.

Shoreham-by-Sea Sussex

Very pleasant weekend in Shoreham - thanks to Stephen and Lesley for the loan of their flat right on the sea front. Great collection of beach huts,fishing boats and house boats - a photographers' site par exellence. The shingle beach is covered in flowers, some introduced like the Valerian around the beach huts but also lots of Yellow Horned Poppies and Viper's Bugloss. I spent quite a bit of time under the bridges over the Adur