Disaster

Well clumsy carp here has had a bit of a disaster, I dropped my Speedlight flashgun, only a foot or so and it was in its case but it appears the SB600 has a nasty design flaw. Minor drops can crack a solder joint on one component on the controller board and the blasted thing will not power up - ho hum will try to solder it and see if that fixers it - failing that raids the piggy bank !

A few days later  .............

Well that did not work so I am now the owner of a Yongnuo Speedlight, seems to work fine and was the same price new as the Nikon 2nd hand.  Time will tell when I get chance to use it in the field

 But anyway prior to this a few plays with various locations - a few Hoverflies, they are fascinating and very diverse, and for those that are not sure - they are the 2nd most important pollinator after Bees ! - if you use the thrice cursed Farcebook, this site is interesting and useful to see the diversity of Hovers and get IDs from the people who wrote the book, the one I now have to aid my IDs, failing that I post them here - https://www.facebook.com/groups/609272232450940/

Also a few flowers and other assorted bugs, just for the heck of it, I had a day out at Lincoln Whisby Nature reserve a short time ago so some from there, some from local Parc Slip Reserve and also a few from Llanelli WWT as well as some from the back garden

Not in any specific order, a few images, a few too many are 'bird on a stick' shots. By that I mean they are subject shots for ID purposes rather than aesthetically pleasing images. Working on it !

 A Mining Bee - Andrena pilipes

 A Robber Fly with prey, it took the moth out of the air in front of me !

 A arty shot of a teasel 

Commonly known as a Hornet fly - Volucella zonaria, one of the biggest Hovers

 Eristalis tenax Hover on Marjoram

 A Japanese anemone, with a bit of creative flash and contrast work in elements

 

A Magpie moth, the git landed on the plastic greenhouse and would not shift, rather than lose the shot completely I limited the background to this at the cost of sharpness on the lh wing 

 Another Hover, Scaeva pyrastri, this one migrates in from Europe !

 A Comma butterfly, love them when they are so fresh 

 A Common Blue Damselfly, Enallagma cyathigerum,  from the business end !

 This one is limited to the specie, Syrphus sp cant ID below that level

 This is known as the Marmalade Hover, Episyrphus balteatus, the most common of them all

A toad, one of many that was wandering around the grassland at Whisby

 Everybody loves our native Orchids, The Bee Orchid, Ophrys apifera, always looks like a laughing jester with the cocked over hat

A close up, nicer background !

 A longhorn beetle Strangalia maculata (in old money) now known as Rutpela maculata 

Ahh, the flies, they all landed like this - then took off, buzzed about and then landed like this again - some say its north south alignment due to magnetic force, me,  I wonder about breeze and scenting pheremones for a female ?

Anyway, thats more than enough for now I think.