Stonechat Versus Emperor Moth and Bee

This female Stonechat appeared to call to the disinterested male before flying out and returning with an Emperor moth. She consumed this whole with some difficulty and then flew again and returned to a better position to photograph her swallowing bee!

Studio Macro Session at Pitsford

A few images from a studio macro session on Wednesday. I particularly liked the first two, taken with the Fuji X100V (23mm lens plus close-up filter); rest with 80mm macro. The moths are Poplar Hawkmoth, Spectacled, Hebrew Character and Brindled Beauty 

Macro Day at Pitsford SSSI

I took part in a Macro session at Pitsford SSSI yesterday run by Naturetrek and led by Dave Jackson. A very enjoyable day though insects were a bit short on the ground (and in the air) with no damselflies and only a very few of butterflies. It was good to not be in 'recording mode' as for nature surveys but to take time with each photograph. Here are a selection of my favourite 'in the field' shots. We also did a studio session (in the open air of course) - images to follow

Two New species in One Day

 I was lucky enough to see and photograph two new species on Sunday - the White-faced Darter and the Raft spider. The latter is an impressive spider with a body length of 2 cm and very long legs - I had difficulty even with focus stacking getting all the body and legs in focus so went for a head-on shot. There are three different Raft spiders shown. It was a cool and windy day so the second dragonfly failed to expand the wings perfectly but it managed to fly.

Woodland Birds Take Two

Is it safe to dive? A second attempt at capturing the birds coming to a woodland clearing for scattered food, again with very diverse lighting.