Dragonfly Day at Paxton Pits

 We have not been at all lucky with the weather for events this year. Our Annual Dragonfly Day in July with the Dragonfly Society (Paxton is a Dragonfly Hotspot ) had to be cancelled because of rain. Our replacement day yesterday was dry but overcast, breezy and cool so not the variety of dragonflies that we hoped plus the Dragonfly Society could not attend the amended date. However, over 30 people turned up for the event and took part in one or both of the walks. Here a few images from the day (Willow Emerald plus the Emerald Damselfly that we hoped but failed to see, Common Darter, Common Blue Damselfly, Blue-tailed Damselfly, Migrant hawker plus other insects including the very spiky Comma caterpillar and the Darwin Wasp (Ichneumon in old terms!)).

Spiders Rule Ok in Garden Jungle

Catching up on the garden species - not so many new ones now but plenty of action with large numbers of spiders (especially Flower Spiders) happy in the hot conditions. ID sheet at end

Garden Species August 13th

We have a very large number of Flower Spiders hiding in various types of vegetation - all quite small at the moment but growing fast, along with Nursery Web and Garden Spiders. This first Flower Spider has taken over the prey, a Red Ant, from web of another species I think (pretty sure Misumena does not make webs). The last image, a Garden Spider has an interesting looking prey ?Shieldbug species - will need further investigation. The other photos are some of the garden's really small inhabitants like the Barklouse found on a daisy and the 22-spot Ladybird. ID sheet at end.

Fossil Snails

These are very small fossil snails that I have photographed and processed for Richard Preece. The scale is 2mm in length so you can see the challenge. They were done on a lightbox with LED lights each side to give pretty even illumination. They are mainly focus stacks. Their significance I believe is because they are related species found in England and Scandinavia supporting the belief that until the middle Pleistocene, Britain was a peninsula off Europe, connected across the Straits of Dover.

Paxton Photogroup: Island Pit Path

A walk along a track through long grass produced quite a variety of species. It was too hot for a formal session but I suggested the group looked for subjects where the backgrounds were far enough away to not distract as with the Hairy Shieldbug about to take off or where they added to the scene as with the Brown Argus. The Hairy Bug is one of those 'nearly' shots - great action shot but the front of head is not sharp. Crickets are always difficult to photograph as deep in the vegetation. Amused to find a very large Wasp Spider on the path  and a minute Zebra Spider (back at the Centre). ID sheet at end.