Tag Archives: insect

Apr 07 2016
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Intruder

Thursday 7th April 2016, 11.15am (day 1,687)

Woodlouse, 7/4/16

Another one of those days spent entirely working at home, with grey light, that will eventually do for this blog — one day I will get to the end and realise that there has simply been nothing to photograph. Still, despite some temptation to the contrary since the turn of the year, I remain here. Hope it doesn’t seem too desperate to stick a woodlouse on here — it’s not even that sharp a shot, because this kid could move, believe me. Usain Bolt standard, in relative terms.

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Aug 12 2015
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Bee buddleia bonanza

Wednesday 12th August 2015, 11.55am (day 1,448)

Bee and buddleia, 12/8/15

I have this image of the bee just diving in and troughing, like it’s the bee equivalent of some Roman orgy or similar. “Hah! Gimme nectar!”

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Jun 21 2014
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Midsummer’s Day

Saturday 21st June 2014, 3.15pm (day 1,031)

Violet, 21/6/14

Captured while out on the second very good walk in three days, this time round Hebden Bridge with my and my sister’s families. Sometimes I wonder why I’m still doing this blog but once in a while it pays off. (When I first posted this I called it “Violet” but actually it is Wood Cranesbill (Geranium sylvaticum).)

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Apr 23 2014
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Bumblebee in big trouble

Wednesday 23rd April 2014, 9.35am (day 972)

Bumblebee and apider, 23/4/14

I know this is an essentially crap photo, with the focus all wrong, but it was a dramatic moment, at least at the micro-scale. I was trying to get a photo of this bumblebee as it buzzed around the plants by our front door, when suddenly it blundered into this web down by our old coal cellar, where the cave spiders live. Now I don’t know about you but if something one and a half times my size — and bumblebees, in insect terms, are not small — came leaping out at me with the intention of making me lunch, I think my life would flash before my eyes even if it was just an insect life. Three seconds later the bumblebee escaped, but I bet those were the longest three seconds it had ever known. I managed to get this one shot of the drama.

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Feb 13 2014
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Unexpected visitor

Thursday 13th February 2014, 10.00am (day 903)

Ladybird, 13/2/14

How on earth we get a ladybird in our house in February, I have no idea. Despite the mildness of the winter (and it has been very mild, with barely a frost yet), the only logical explanation is it’s been inside with us all winter. It was a bit sluggish, but alive.

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Aug 16 2013
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Is that pollen in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me

Friday 16th August 2013, 9.50am (day 722)

Rose, 16/8/13

Ahhhh, Nature. Whatever the species, even kingdom, the aesthetics of sex are essentially the same.

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Mar 18 2013
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Butterfly on a paperbark tree

Monday 18th March 2013, 1.50pm (day 571)

Butterfly on paperbark tree, 18/3/13_low-res

I’m trying to resist the temptation to overdo the ‘Flora/Fauna’ theme but don’t seem able to kick the habit. This was taken in the Boondall wetlands, where I wandered, around lunchtime. I needed some headspace so took my laptop and finished off the paper I needed to write while mainly sitting in a birdwatchers’ hide at the mouth of the Nundah creek. Memo to self though – if visiting wetlands, take insect repellent.

Some great insects however, including more butterflies than I think I have ever seen anywhere. Have no idea what this species is specifically, but there were lots of them, and this one is definitely resting on a paperbark tree – called as such for obvious reasons.

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Jul 26 2012
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Busy bee

Wednesday 25th July 2012, 11.20am (day 335)

Bumblebee at work, 25/7/12

Tolerable weather today, by recent standards, and I got a Lake District walk in – photos are on my other blog (or will be soon, when I post them). This guy doesn’t get the day off though. He was hard at work as I passed him outside the village of Mungrisdale, Cumbria.

Over the course of this blog I have quite got into taking photos of wildlife: animals and plants make good subjects, they don’t get self-conscious in front of a camera. You can’t persuade them to stay in shot and in focus, but they don’t mind having cameras pointed at them per se.

By the way, I have one more month of this blog to go, at least to get to the full year that I set out to do. However, I am going to continue for a second year and finish, finally, on 25th August 2013.

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Mar 23 2012
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Bumblebee in Guinness glass

Friday 23rd March 2012, 4.35pm (day 211)

Bee in glass, 23/3/12

The weather remains beautiful and springlike. I’d say it has brought out the bumblebees but actually, for some reason this year there has been a real crop of big, fat dozy bumblebees doing the rounds for about two weeks now. This one I trapped in a glass to get it out of the pub, but then couldn’t resist using it as a model for about twenty photos during which it got increasingly pissed off and eventually started zooming up and down the glass so fast I couldn’t photograph it any more, so I let it go.

This shot I love, though, it looks like a little mouse with a single wing. You’re viewing it from behind: the two legs to the right are its rear two legs; its head is facing away from the camera, and its left wing is obscured because it lies along the line where the glass meets the paper. The magazine underneath it gives an interesting background. Yeah, I’m happy with this one. Nice photo to end a good week.

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