Flying Insects and Unusual 'Bug'

Continuing the quest for good flight images of insects, the hoverflies were at 1/5000th and 1/6400th and the Bee Flies at 1/6400th and 1/8000th. The wing movement relates more to position of wing in flap cycle than to shutterspeed.

 The Saucer Bug, Ilyocoris cimicoides, is a new species for me and is listed as incapable of flight in Paul Brock's 'Bible' but this one definitely flew away when asked to pose too often. Looking into it further I found the following statement 'Although I. cimicoides is fully winged most individuals have reduced flight muscles and are unable to fly, but flight has been observed in England and Denmark' 

 Otherwise lots of activity on a warm afternoon including the Ashy Mining bee with its parasitic wasp Nomada goodenia and also N. flava

Peregrine Displays

 Some documentary shots of the courtship display of the Peregrine pair that have returned St Albans. The female has a rather tatty tail but it didn't seem to affect her manoeuvrability. Hopefully someone in our Nature Group with more pixels than my camera has some better shots.

St Albans Herons

I have visited St Albans most years from 2012 to watch the Herons and friends busy courting, mating and building nests around the second week in March. After a very sparse year in 2023, this year is encouraging as we located 5 nests and maybe a couple of unpaired youngsters. The early light with low sunshine was ideal but it clouded over later so a different approach in processing at the end. My favourite is the second image - sheer 'Joie de Vivre' which is how they made me feel. The grumpy one giving the evil eye to the Coot is probably more representative of their behaviour.

Flight Shots at Hunstanton

 I spent some time on Saturday at Hunstanton trying to get flight shots of the various birds there especially the Fulmars. The light level was low with the cloudy conditions so high ISO and difficult to get high enough shutterspeeds  but it did allow detail in the whites and certainl;y gave the camera a task to pick up the birds against backgrounds

Birds at Hunstanton

Some shoreline birds from my visit on July 8th on a mostly overcast afternoon. I was trying to capture movement and flight as flocks of waders etc moved through when the tide receded and exposed the mussel-bed-feeding grounds. I also attempted to capture the Fulmars and Swifts that nest in the cliffs - not a great success rate!!