Thames Barge Race

After all the hot dry weather of the last 2 weeks, it was inevitable that it would change on the day I had booked to follow the Thames Barge Race from Pin Mill. It was raining hard and very windy when we left Ipswich at 6.30am and continued for most of the day with just a short dry spell in the middle of the day. The rain helped to add atmosphere to the pictures but the wind meant that we couldn't go out to the open sea as Kitty, the barge we were on, is smaller and lighter than those competing.I did get a few distant shots of the larger classes sailing out from the harbour. Anyway I enjoyed the day though may have to try again for the images I had in mind for today. 

White Admiral, Purple Emperor and Fritillary

 Two new butterfly species for me today, the White Admiral and Purple Emperor. Thanks Richard for showing us these in a Bedfordshire Wood. I would like to photograph a fully open Purple Emperor sometime,  so good excuse to return there. The Silver Washed Fritillaries are from Gamlingay - I was pleased to find female among the Brambles - she is very well camouflaged.

Silver -Washed Fritillary

 A hot sunny morning - perfect for a visit to Gamlingay wood to search out the Silver-Washed  Fritillary. I luckily didn't have to wait long as an obliging individual was feeding on the first ride . They are a wonderful orange that glows in the sunlight with the light hairs on the wings giving the silver appearance.

Marbled Whites are On the Wing

 Our local meadow was alive with Marbled Whites yesterday evening - this is about 2 weeks earlier than last year. Lovely to see them there in large numbers again. They are all in very good condition with males (black) and females (Brown) clearly distinguishable.

RPS Nature Group Devil's Dyke

On Friday the foreast for today looked dry and sunny but, by this morning, showers were forecast from 1pm. Unfortunately the rain arrived about 11.30 and persisted the rest of the day. However we managed to reach the stretch of the Dyke with the Lizard orchids before the rain set in. It was very windy so not ideal for flower portraits but managed a few Lizard orchids and a Pyramidal. The butterflies were mainly resting out of the wind and rain like this Ringlet.

Final Macro from Kingcombe

These are the  images that I took on the last two mornings at Kingcombe Lodge. The Blue-tailed Damselfly has 5 female forms.The top is one of the immature forms, rufescens, which has a salmon pink thorax (violacea has a violet thorax) . When mature the female has 3 colour forms: typica is blue like the male, infuscans has an olive green thorax and brown tail spot and infuscans-obseleta has thorax in pale brown with a blue tail. Difficult to see what evolutionary advantage of maintaining all these variants! The reeds have a large population of Long-jawed Orb Web Spider, here seen catching a Damselfly and spinning its egg cocoon on a leaf. The Grasshopper and the Midge were warming in the early sun.

Evening in Bath

In Bath for the RPS Visual Arts Assessment and the weather is still hot and sunny - typical when we are spending the days inside. It has been giving beautiful light in the evenings.

Dead Fly Mystery Solved

While we were in Dorset, we noticed many flies that at first appearance were just resting on leaves but on closer inspection were dead. They were attached in an invisible way to the leaves as if in a trance. 
I have now found the answer. They were infect by Entomophthora muscae, a fungus that releases millions of spores; if they land on a fly hyphae grow into its brain to control its crawling activity. The fly crawl upwards until it latches onto something high – eg one of the upper leaves of a nettle.There it adopts the pose in the images above while the fungal hyphae permeate its body, stick its feet to the leaf and digests its internal organs. The fungus then produces sporangia which erupt from the fly’s body and distribute its spores into the air.
Truly the stuff of science fiction.

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.