Elephant Hawkmoth Caterpillar

We met this Elephant Hawkmoth caterpillar wandering across the road in Toft, Cambridgeshire and took a few shots in return for rescuing him. He has now burrowed down into a pot of soil where he will pupate  and  stay there till next year to emerge as our most vibrant moth.

London Trip - Walk from East India to Canary Wharf

Here are some more images from my trip to Docklands area of London last weekend. On Sunday, I walked from East India into canary Wharf enjoying the views and the wildlife en route. Sevarl pairs of Great Crested Grebes including this one with three stripey young. Many of the dockside properties look great places to live. Next entry will show inside shots at Canary Wharf - it was more pleasant inside than out !!

Garden Birds

We are lucky to have a family of long-tailed Tits visiting our feeders every day at the moment. The young are beginning to take on the adult plumage but are still paler with less of an eye ring. A joy to watch their acrobatics. They are joined here by  'our' family of bluetits, great tits and goldfinches. Taken through a window just before the thunderstorm commenced so not ideal photographic conditions!

 

 

Bar Hill's New Footbridge

We spent a very hot hour yesterday morning photographing the new footbridge at Bar Hill. Thanks Paul for arranging the access around the site. I played around with double and multiple exposures as well as a full panorama. I will return on a cooler day and cross the bridge for more views and certainly visit when the area has grown vegetation.  

 

Back to Macro

My quest this year has been to investigate options for doing extreme macro i.e. more than 1:1. Having built various lens combinations etc (see earlier posts), I am now testing a macro lens that will do up to twice life size. Definitely not mastered a technique for using or lighting an unstabilized high magnification lens but here a few test shots at different focus distances. The first is around 1:1; the second, an intriguing Ant Damsel Bug larval instar, at 2:1 and the others at various magnifications. I will wait for a very still day to try on static insects such as greenfly. If nothing else, I have discovered a new species for the garden list as I would have passed by the Ant Damsel Bug, thinking it to be an Ant.

 

 

London - Dusk at East India

After a very hot day in Canary Wharf area, I took a stroll down to the Thames at East India where my Travelodge was and recording the fading light. They have created a great nature reserve in the East India dock basin - full of birds including 2 Egrets, 2 Herons, Coot, etc etc. With only a 23 mm lens, I could only record the birds in habitat. Great views of O2 and Docklands development though not many lights on to lift the scene. All handheld but give an idea of the Thames in the evening and the walk back to the TL.