Annual Homage to the Bee-Wolf Wasp and Friends

I always enjoy a visit to the Bee-Wolf Wasp colony not just for the challenge of getting them in flight but also for the abundant behavioural observations and the rarer species that you find there. The Fuji XT-3 is a great camera for this job with very fast autofocus and low contrast images in the bright light. There was a confrontation between a Common Wasp and a Bee-Wolf Wasp and a strange ant-like creature which turned out to be the nymphal stage of a plant bug Alydus calcaratus. Final two images of a female and male bee commonly known as the Pantaloon bee! 

Tuesday's Visit to Barton

Tuesday was a better day weatherwise as it stayed dry till we had finished in the afternoon. The wind was just right to hold the Emperor Dragonflies in a hover so I got a few flight shots. Otherwise two favourite butterflies the Brown Argus and the Small Copper, a Long-winged Cone-head, a Straw Dot Moth and Meredith's froglet friends.

Monday's Visit to Barton

With an inclement forecast for Tuesday, I ended up running two trips to Barton for CCC Members to photograph the abundant wildlife there but there was something new to see with every visit (and, of course, it rained on Monday instead!). Here convergent evolution with a Hover fly (Chrysotoxum) and a Conopid fly (Leopoldius) both mimicing wasp species and a Hoverfly (Myathropa florea) that has a clear bat image on its thorax. At the pools, it was a bit windy for lots of flying but added Black-tailed Skimmer and Ruddy Darter to species photos.

 

Polo and Picnic

Lots of action at our annual picnic at the polo on Sunday though very unforgiving light. Here a small selection from the three matches.

A Great Time for Dragons

We spent Friday afternoon at the Dragonfly pools which were teeming with different species. They were all very active in the heat so only managed one flight shot - of Common Darters and this wasn't great! Plenty of Emperors laying everywhere, also more Red-Eyed Damselflies than I have seen before, including battallions on the water ready for take off. Over the fields and along the hedgerows Migrant Hawkers (with Brown Hawkers) were busy catching insects. A real summer idyll showing what can be achieved by organic farming!!

Wildlife at Larkrise Farm, Barton

Larkrise Farm Barton is managed by The Countryside Restoration Trust who have transformed it from an intensively farmed wildlife desert into a productive arable farm teeming with wildlife, including Butterflies, Spiders etc. This has been achieved using farming methods such as smaller field sizes, crop rotations, leaving over-wintering stubble, beetle banks, wildlife strips and planting over 4.5 miles of new hedgerows. Here Common Blues, Gatekeepers, Small Copper and Marbled White. Spiders included the impressive Wasp Spider.