Derek Moss Sculptures at the Beren

I spent a couple of hours photographing Derek Moss's sculptures at his Open Studio display. He was exhibiting his work in the garden of John McGill our Toft Sculptor, whose work I have featured in my Blog previously (Link) . Very difficult conditions, particularly for photographing the bronzes.

Fun with the Kingfishers

This young kingfisher (white tip to beak) was one of a party of 4 kingfishers flying around and fishing at Paxton yesterday. It made several dives but wasn't successful! I used the fast drive to record consecutive flight shots as it dived and then aligned them to make a composite (image 2). The dive down shows how the speed increases as it dives down (greater spacing of consecutive images). Unfortunately the return to perch was not so successful composite as the bird flew forward of the focus zone (my camera is not good enough autofocus to track this). The last two are of the adult male (longer completely black beak, unspeckled breast etc) in the distance.

 

Fen Dayton Pits RSPB

The morning started overcast which gave lots of opportunites for closeups of the damselflies and other insects. The soldier beetle in the hogweed head was a missed opportunity in that it required a greater depth of field than the light conditions permitted or a focus stack but I still like the colours and shapes created and I am amazed at the length of the Tree Bumblebee's tongue

July Garden Safari

 With the abundant ground cover under the perennials, my flowering plants are surviving the drought pretty well and have been covered in insects through the hot weather including lots of flies, bees, spiders, hemiptera and butterflies. A real treasure trove for an insect recorder!! Yellow flowers are definitely favoured in the garden at the moment for visiting small Andrea bee species and hence the hunting territory for the Candy-striped spider.

RSPB Titchwell

The second venue on our RPS Nature Group weekend was Titchwell, one of my favourite reserves for its wide variety of habitats from the Mussel beds that are uncovered at low tide giving feeding opportunities for Black-tailed Godwits, Oyster Catchers and Knot, lagoons with Ruff and Avocets and the ponds and scrubland with a variety of insect life.