Kimmeridge Bay

 A very windy day at Kimmeridge Bay getting up to gale force in the afternoon. Several wind surfers braved the wind but they found it very difficult to turn at the ends of the runs so spent as much time in the sea as on the waves. I tried some slow shutterspeed images both for the waterfall and seagulls on the beach and later for the windsurfers. The waterfall images were not successful as a 300mm lens on a not too sturdy tripod in a strong wind does not allow  sharp images of the rocks at 1/5sec!!.

Powerstock Common

 
 A humid and still day for a visit to Powerstock Common produced a reasonable number of insects but the numbers are far fewer than on previous visits. Many unidentified flies and a first instar long-horned cricket.The orchids were better than previous years - marsh , spotted, butterfly (shown) and  bee orchid. Several spider species, large red damselfly, azure damselfly and four spotted chaser (not shown). The Marsh Fritillaries reluctantly took to the wing in the afternoon.

Kingcombe Dorset

 A few shots from our first evening - mainly taken with the FujiRX100.

London folk

 A few shots to show cosmopolitan London.

Strumpshaw Fen

Sunday's forecast predicted a warmer and less windy day than lately so we made a visit to Strumpshaw Fen, predicting that Swallowtail butterflies and various dragonflies would be on the move. Certainly there were Swallowtails all over the reserve and some dragonflies including this very hairy Hairy Dragonfly.

Although we found some interesting things to photograph, generally there were fewer insects around than a typical mid June visit. The spiders were the most abundant particularly the spiderlet balls everywhere. I also photographed the Furrow Orb Weaver, a Long-Jawed spider (Tetracnathidae family) and a beautiful Cucmber Spider (Araniella cucurbitina).

 Among the other interesting species was the Ruby-tailed Wasp Chrysis ignata which looks like a minute fly, the hoverfly that mimics a bumble-bee  Volucella bombylans and the Scorpion fly Panorpa communis this one a female without the 'sting'.

London Icons

 The weather on Saturday for our visit to London was very variable.  Although I have photographed King's Cross station new concourse many times, it is still a challenge to get a good balance of tones and colours. I couldn't resist posting the lady at the BM who has adopted exactly the pose of the Roman statue! The sun kept going in and out at the British Museum which added another dimension to compositions, while the photographs of the Shard and St Pauls were taken at the same time from London Bridge showing how different the skies were in the two directions.