Paxton Pits Dragons etc

Fair number of  Migrant Hawkers, Ruddy  and Common Darters, and Willow Emeralds  at Paxton yesterday. This Scorpion Fly obligingly stayed for some time as a photographic model feeding on Ant Damsel Fly. Not sure if the short-winged moth is a common variant of the Turnip Moth or an incomplete emergence. Still lots of Wasp Spiders. I also spent a bit of time trying to get flight shots of the Bee Mimic fly (Eristalis intricaria)

 

Rainy Cambridge

Cambridge was the answer to a recent query 'in which City centre in England can you see cows grazing?' Add to this hay bales and it is a good description of Cambridge at the moment. Saturday was very wet and I felt the need for a bit of umbrella therapy. Although a lot less busy than a sunny day punting was continuing even if it meant looking like ghosts in their plastic wraps. It was Cambridge's Out of the Ordinary Festival which should have meant the streets etc were full of performers. Many were moved inside but this quartet continued around the City to the obvious amusement of shoppers.

New and Returning Garden Species

On my daily round in the garden, it is always exciting to find species that are unusual and are appearing for a second or subsequent season such as the Juniper Shieldbug, or are new to my records such as the Phytocoris varipes, not recorded in Toft before but seen last week at Paxton, where it was also on Ragwort. These images were taken as the skies cleared after a very wet day so lots of resting wet bees!

Sidgewick Site Squares

We have an ongoing project to produce square-format images and so Wednesday evening photography at the Sidgewick Site in Cambridge was dominated by finding and creating square images. (FujiX100V; some multiple exposures).

Toft Mini Invertebrates

It is time to cut the mini meadow in my garden but I couldn't do this without a session with the sweep net to see what is living in the grass. This is about a third of the species I managed to identify - many more are just too small.