Annual Visit to Bee-Wolf Wasp Site, Sandy

We are probably past the peak time for the Bee-wolf Wasps but there were still a fair number around. I was very pleased to find the spider-hunting wasp Episyron rufipes dragging its prey a considerable distance before leaving it for a couple of hours while the tunnel was excavated. Lots of Astata boops wasps, one with a shieldbug - looks like the 4th instar of the Gorse Shieldbug. A couple of Ammophila sabulosa but not with their caterpillar prey. Cast completed by a Sarcophaga fly, Dasypoda hirtipes and ?Field Grasshopper

Punting Trip

It was great to meet up with Alistair, Bev and Rowan after too long a break due to Covid restrictions. Alistair very expertly punted us up to the Granta from Mill Lane and then down as far as St Johns before returning. The river was very busy but the swans with their 7 cygnets didn't seem to worry about all the punts and people provided bits of picnic were being shared.

British Orchids

I am gradually adding new species to my list of orchids that I have photographed in the UK. Go to British Orchids

Garden Project 10

Since I 'rewilded' large parts of my garden in January 2020, I have been recording the plants and the insects etc that have made their home with us. Here a batch of flower photos, some with their visiting bees, flies, butterflies, caterpillars etc. 

Elephant Hawkmoth Caterpillar

Always exciting to find these very large caterpillars in the garden - feeding on the Greater Willowherb. I decided to practise my focus stacking on them. I used pegs to hold a branch of the plant upright and away from the plant to give a simple background. The first stack is 30 images with an LED continuous light at the front - not enough to have the flower in focus as well the caterpillar; the second is 45 images and has the light a bit further away and from the top so the stem is now defined

UEA, A Brutalism Megastructure

The University of East Anglia campus was designed by Denys Lasdun and constructed in 1970.  The teaching block is a long, winding ribbon with copper hued windows. The horizontals are broken up by concrete housed vents and lift shafts jutting above the roofline. The library and students’ union building are an arrangements of boxes that continue the horizontal thread. The campus is completed by the student accommodation, the ziggurats seen through the sculpture in the infrared images. connected to the rest by long concrete walkways.