Colwell and Totland Bays, Isle of Wight

Staying on the Isle of White for a week. We are 3 mins walk from the beach and the coastal walk. Yesterday was grey and overcast when we started out walk to Totland but the sun came out later though not a great sunset. The area has had large landslides over several years so the area is full of skeleton trees and shell containing coat and rocks.

Botanical Studies

Barry and Ken ran a very enjoyable workshop yesterday with Still-life as its theme and invited everyone to contribute some subjects - this resulted in a wonderful collection of vegetables, fruit, flowers, vases, memorabilia etc. I spent all afternoon photographing the different glass vases and bottles plus flowers that were contributed. Unfortunately, I managed to delete the folder of images before downloading but hope to retrieve at some stage. So here are my morning offerings using a lightbox and overhead lighting (continuous or flash), plus a bottle and hops with a light pad back illumination and a shell lit by studio flash. Hopefully my main project will rise from the ashes for later sharing

It's Behind You - Spiders at Lakenheath

Although not as plentiful as previous autumns, there were plenty of different spiders and harvestmen at Lakenheath on Wednesday - this wren was hunting for food in the undergrowth but somehow missed this one or perhaps it is not a palatable food item. Despite searching widely, I haven't located any literature on which species of spiders are or are not eaten by birds. Possible species ID: Harvestman Leiobunum rotundum, Araneus marmoreus, Araneus quadratus, Pisaurus mirabilis. (For next year's ID help - Ruddy Darter (black legs), Common Darter (striped legs))

Lakenheath Flies and Bees etc

 A few more images from Lakenheath on Wednesday. The flies were the most numerous insects including two new species for me Ceroxys urticae (Picture-winged Fly) and Sargus bipunctatus (Twin-spot Centurion), plus Coremacera marginata a snail-killing fly, Scathophaga stercoraria. Wasps were common as most places with Carder bees active in the few flowers that were out.

.

Bugs, Beetles and Hoppers at Lakenheath

 It was overcast and quite cool at the start of our RPS visit to Lakenheath though it did warm up in the late afternoon. There were lots of different insects and spiders to find, photograph and identify though not in the usual large numbers there. Here is a selection of Hemiptera, Coleoptera and Orthoptera (Pentastoma rufipes Forest bug; Picromerus bidens Spiked Bug; Coreus marginatus Dock Bug; Lygus pratensis; Hetercercus fenestratus; Oulema melanopus Cereal leaf beetle; Blepharida rhois Leaf beetle; Anthocomus rufus flower beetle; Philaenus spumarius X 2 Meadow leaf hopper ;  Conocephalus fuscus Long-winged Conehead; Tetrix subulata SlenderGround Hopper)