Flying high!!!!

Thought (having seen other blogs) it might be nice to share some of my attempts to capture various insects in flight.
In honesty, I think dragonflies might be the easiest.....

If you up the ISO, with the camera settings on M you can adjust the exposure to as fast as possible and 'still' the dragonfly wings.

This Migrant hawker is great for taking in flight shots, as they are very inquisitive and love to hover really close to see what you are doing.

Of all the in flight shots I have taken I think I probably like this shot the most....as the dragonfly really stands out well from the background, and it really shows off his amazing gliding skills.

Common darters are also a great place to start, as they are also nosy, and plentiful.

Some hovers are easier than others, this species is really good.

He looks like he's jumping for joy!!!

Damselflies are a bit more tricky , as this shot shows.

Downy emeralds love hovering, and they have amazing blue eyes!

This is a male hairy footed flower bee and believe me this was just a lucky shot!!

Southern Hawker still showing off.

Mill Hill such a great place!

I love going to Mill Hill, it is such a wonderful piece of chalk grassland and wonderful for butterflies.

However it is not for the feint hearted as the path on the lower slopes (where most of the butterflies are) is only about a foot wide and halfway down a steep slope. Added to this the butterflies don't just land on the grass 2 inches from the path (I wish they would), so you have to be prepared to scramble up and down the slopes beside the path to get any shots.

The views are worth it though, they are stunning!

Grizzled skippers, a mating pair, great news for Mill Hill next year.

The similar but slightly larger Dingy skipper. Such a sad name for such a beautiful butterfly.

Mill Hill is most famed for it's population of Adonis blue butterflies, you really have to see them to understand what all the lepidopterists rave about but the blue colour is out of this world!! 

You can tell them from the duller Common blues by the checkerboard edging to the wings

Carline thistles are like little sun dials, opening for the rays.

Hounds tongue

Finally, this little fly, famed for Kissing it's mate - sweet!!

Talk to the hand!!!!!

Looking back my desire to 'whisper' to little insects so they would climb onto my hand started quite innocently the middle of last year.  I think the reason for my sudden strange behaviour was three fold,

 Firstly I had been forced to stop using my much loved 90 - 300mm telemacro lens and had to switch to using my 50mm compact macro instead. Using the macro lens meant I had to get so much closer to the subject, to get a decent shot - no more taking shots from 18 inches away!!

Secondly, I had purchased a lovely shiny new set of 3 all singing all dancing extension tubes which unfortunately  meant getting even closer to get a good shot!

And finally, at 54 I was getting a bit old and creaky and climbing around in the undergrowth seemed less inviting by the day!

This beautiful Volucella inanis was one of the first flies I was able to get onto my finger, she seemed more than willing to sit there, and it was just soo easy to get decent shots....so the fly whispering continued.

Flushed with success success I moved on to shield bugs, great little insects always willing to sit and look pretty.  

Even moths like this stunning Dusky sallow (Eremobia ochroleuca) seemed to be happy just sitting in my palm!

I saw this little hover (Eristalis intricarius) hovering around just above me when I was on a day out at Wisley gardens with my friend, I just put my hand up in the air and he landed straight on my finger, I couldn't believe it.

Flushed with my success in 2011 I started this year as I mean to go on. This is a gorse shield bug showing his fantastic red antennae.

This normally flighty bee fly was caught caught in a spider's web, seeing his plight I managed to set him free, and he sat on my finger for a few seconds before flying off again.

This is a tiny lily beetle (saved from squashing by my neighbour for taking up residence on her snake's head fritillary). Close up you can get so much better detailed shots.

Early grey moth, caught in my moth trap.

Flushed with continued success, I moved on to more difficult subjects, This small bee  Nomada goodeniana is trying it's best to bite me!! Great wasp mimic though don't you think!!!

St Mark's day fly 

Female Orange tip, happily settled on my finger

Hover fly  

Epistrophe eligans  Don't even ask what it is doing!!!!

This is
Rhingia campestris named after it's big fat nose no doubt!!

Minute little pea weevil, soo sweet!! 

This beautiful bee 

Andrena haemorrhoea was cold and more than willing to sit on my warm hand.

My first damselfly of the season, a perfect female large red damselfly, rescued from the path.

Last but by no means least a Drinker moth larvae, and before you mention it, please don't try holding hairy larvae unless you are sure you are not allergic.

Butterflies so far..........

Not too many butterflies yet, but those I have photographed have been spectacular!

Comma, Seen often in the spring sunbathing after overwintering. I love these little butterflies, in the summer they fly up and down the glades doing a great impression of a silver washed fritillary...I have been fooled more than once!

And when the wings close..........you can hardly see him!

Grizzled skipper, one on my tick list. I don't find these very easy to photograph as the black and white wing edges seem to make the photograph look grainy.  

I found this mating pair, and as they were sitting on a stick I was able to pick it up and get some really decent shots

My fave shot! the not often seen underside. and two for the price of one Yipee!!!

Another Mill Hill skipper, the Dingy skipper this time. This one is freshly hatched and not dingy at all!

Speckled wood, common, but really beautiful and so well hidden in dappled sunshine.

Orange tip, my favourite spring butterfly!!! I love these little butterflies they are so charming and beautiful. Most of the time they are flitting around at top speed and not stopping long enough to pick up a camera, let alone fire off a few shots. This year it has been quite cool, so they have been roosting quietly and much more available for a quick phpotoshoot.

This is a female, slightly larger without orange tips.

Asleep on the flower he spent the night on.

Male - with orange tips

Just investigating............

Wild flowers 2012

Right, I have been trying where possible to take nice aesthetically pleasing pictures of all the wild flowers I see this year.
At this point 17/4 I have photographed over 40 species. Here are some of my highlights...... (and lowlights!)

 Coltsfoot...really early and a beautiful colour in the winter sunshine!!! I always look out for it on the duel carriageway near Wimland road, this search can become quite an obsession for me, and when I see the first yellow flowers I know spring is on the way.
It has strange scaly stems and buds, and the leaves only appear after flowering. This specimen was especially perfect!

 This is ladies smock AKA cuckoo flower, milkmaids and various other colloquial charming names. I think Ladies smock must be my most favourite early spring flower of all time, I don't know what it is I find so attractive about it, but it is possibly the wonderful delicate pale mauve flowers and the way it foams and froths along the roadside verges just like lace on a ladies smock! perfection!!

Wood sorrel, so delicate and charming and so beautiful! I love this plant too because it looks so fragile and has beautiful heart shaped clover leaves. I had to take this shot in the shade to show up the delicate purple veins in the flower.

This is barren strawberry, so called I guess as it never has strawberry fruit (probably because it isn't a strawberry at all). This tiny plant can often be missed, but it is well worth looking for, I love the way the 5petals and sepals form perfect symmetry. 

Hairy violet. I had to go to Mill Hill to find these growing on the chalk grassland, but I really think it was worth the effort as they are stunning.

Speedwell, another often overlooked little plant. I like these asymmetric pictures, I think they have a much more 'arty' feel to them.

Wild strawberry, the real thing this time, tiny like the barren strawberry, but totally different in close up. I love the stamens, they look like little ping pong bats!!!

Primroses bring back memories of my childhood when we would go to Wimland hill and pick bunches and bunches of sweet smelling primroses, all neatly tied in posies edged with leaves. I still remember the smell.... and even today when I smell primrose plants I am 8 years old again!!! Thank goodness the practice of 'primrosing' has long since died out and the poor plants have had a chance to recover and spread again.

This picture is of a primrose plant growing in the roadside verge, just how I always remember them.

Garlic mustard or Jack-by-the-hedge, a small often overlooked plant but important to me as it is one f the food plants of the Orange tip butterfly a real favourite of mine.