Cosmeston - its the Bugs y'know

Had a wander around Cosmestion Country park on Saturday, dropped the girls off at a craft fair and played with the Sigma macro / D7100 combo

Quite a few bugs starting to be around if you look for them on a sunny day. Looking forward to many more this year.

This is a Cardinal Beetle but a sub varia with the red head rather than the usual black, Pyrochroa serraticornis - smart fella, got to love the head gear !

And of course a damsel - an Azure damselfly - Coenagrion puella resting on a leaf, as you can see from the shadow it was a sunny day and these guys were not sitting around long for pictures !

The Large Red Damselfly - Pyrrhosoma nymphula were also in good number and took some time out to pose for me, nice !

This is a Soldier beetle - Cantharis rusticsa, pretty fierce if your a small insect but for us - lots of bravado and posing but thats it

Now this was a bit unusual for me - walking in the woods and got to a point where there was a break in the canopy, in the light area there was a number of insects swarming / circling quickly often breaking off and then more coming in, as they were above me and moving rapidly in all directions it was a point - manual focus and shoot to try and get anything, turns out they are craneflies, not seen this behaviour before so was interesting.

Now this is a fly a Snipe Fly probably the common one Rhagio scolopacea there were quite a few about but again reluctant to land and stay put - managed to get a couple of frames and this is the best of the bunch.

Finally a Spider, what captured my eye was not only the spider but the Fly - talk about taking a risk. The spider in question is a Hunting Spider - Pisaura mirabilis, they dont use a web but as the name suggestds they hunt their prey, at this time of the year I guess the 'hunt' for a mate was uppermost in its mind and the fly was lucky !

This is what the prey normally sees last thing before the lights go out !

In all a nice few hrs wandering looking for bugs, a few odd looks from people and a few snippets passed on to educate the passer by, one gent with his lady and children now knows that Damselflies fold their wings along their body and Dragonflies hold them out at 90 degrees to their body, something he did not know then and does now and can amaze his young children with to help them develop an interest in wildlife, very satisfactory to do that.

Helping out at Slimbridge

I had a day helping out at Slimbridge on Friday, the company I work for does volunteer days with various charities and this was a chance to have a day at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust working on the environment. So, a day not at work, a day at Slimbridge and some work that adds value to the habitat and the WWT - whats not to like.

The work was removing segdge from a duck drive and replanting it elswhere, the Water Vole studies have shown that where the vole survives winter best has river banks with sedge growing, the early growth and I suspect the shelter it gives overwinter to young shoots and early spring growth seems to be a deciding factor in voles ability to survive in that area.

After the work - we had time for an hr or so to wander around, it was very quiet so a great opportunity to have a wander. A few pictures ftrom that time. None from the work.

The cranes from the re-introduction scheme, I did see two fly over, adults from a previous years release that return to the area. Amazing sight given the size of the birds !

Another Bird in Flight shot - has to be done - more practice needed !

And at this time of year - there are Goslings - staying close to mum and dad

Mother Moorhen picked a great spot to nest - there was no angle I could get that did not have a leaf  in the way so I chose this angle as the best one to show the chicks and mum clearly keeping an eye on them and me

Still working on the 'three duck' shot to get the three in a line as a homage to the plaster ducks of the 60s

Now the chicks are about - so are the big gulls, they will take any they can carry away. This one was taking a keen interest in some but parents were watching and not giving it the opportunity

I do like Jackdaws, this was clearly a pair and he was being very protective, some mutual preening was going on - I got fairly close but was under fierce scrutiny all the time

In all a great day with lots of fun and some satisfying work that had real value.

Parc Slip on Saturday and Dyffryn on Sunday

Yesterday went to Parc Slip nature reserve, saw my first dragon of the year, Libellula depressa - Broad Bodied Chaser/ Darter

Had a afternoon at Dyffryn today - was a sunny but breezy afternoon.

A few images from the day, as spring moves towards summer more 'bugs' are around just a few images.

A Common Blue Butterfly - Polyommatus icarus

Sloe or Hairy Shield Bug - Dolycoris baccarum

Nomada fulvicornus

small fly on seedhead

Dandelion Seed head

 May put more up later. The Acers are in glorious colour so I will process a few of those and add them later

Where do the days go

Blimey, I think a change in process is required here, instead of waiting for me to have done things and have lots to put up - its time I moved over to little and often.

Ignoring all the last two months or so - this week I decided to give the Sigma macro lens a present - I got a 2nd hand Nikon D7100 for it to play with, set it up and took a few shots - this is a 50% of the full frame of the .jpg straight out of the camera, fairly please with it.

A hoverfly in flight, they are about 10mm long - Platycheirus albimanus. No common name that I am aware of.

I will post more later when the rain stops !