Pond Life pt 3 - Adult Red Damselfly

With the the warm weather and only a relatively short passage of time, damselflies quickly mature into mating adults.  We had plenty visiting us over the last weekend, so I thought I would share a few with you here on today's blog

Dave did a blog quite some time ago about the effects of different backgrounds and on these images you have either the choice of the green foliage or the dark water of the pond surface (with associated blobs of duckweed show through)

 I prefer the more subtle tones of the greens, but the stronger contrast of the dark water does show the colours of the insect more prominently.

It is always worth experimenting with your subjects.

We have now started to see the first of the Azure Damsels so I will look forward to getting some images of those and also the shapes that the mating pairs make.

Martin

Pond Life - Part 1 - New life emerges

With other activities than just frogs in my pond, I will bring the Pond Life series this year with the comings and goings of anything that could be considered 'non-frog'.

With the activity in the garden a couple of weeks or so earlier than last year, I was expecting the first of the Damselflies to emerge over this last week, and I haven't been disappointed.  The first started to emerge on Wednesday and we have seen between five and eight on everyday.  Although on Sunday, there should have been at least one more but one of the frogs grabbed it before it could get up the plant stem to emerge.

I have also seen four empty cases of Broad Bodied Chaser in the water but have not seen any emerge so I am wondering if they have been sucked empty by the frogs look for a succulent meal.

Anyway, I took as series of images on Friday morning that show the damsel as it emerges from the case with a series of its growth as the wings and body expand as it pumps the fluids through its body to become fully formed.  but I will bring you those images later in the week..

On Saturday morning as I was about to start work on the next phase of the pond, I saw a damsel that had just emerged and was beautifully back lit.  It was slightly too far away in the middle of the water to use just the 180 macro with the 5D so I needed to add some focal length.  One of the beauties of the Canon 180 macro is that you can add the 1.4 EFTC  - not something you can do with the other macro lenses  (Note: Not sure if you can with the new 100 so that may not be totally correct)

So with the body/lens set up, all that remained was to get the bean bag supported on the pond edge on a large plank so it could overhang the water and get busy.

Once again, the live view facility came into it's own.

 

Large Red Damselfly

As you can see it is still forming, and at this stage the wings are fully formed but the body has a long way to pump out to full size.  You will be able to see this better when I bring the full series later in the week.

With the strong back light, the background goes to black, or very nearly anyway.

After a while, the sun popped behind a cloud for a short while, and this is the result.

Quite nice, but not in the same league as the back lit version, in my opinion.

Martin

Pond Life Part 4 - More mating and mature colours

In Pond Life Part 3, I bought you mating Large Reds and the first Common Blue  Azure Damsel that we had seen emerge in the garden pond.

Well the Common Blues Azure Damselflies are now matured and mating as you can see below

Slightly lower POV and the female has put her abdomen deeper into the water, risking attack from the Newts

The Duckweed has been multiplying at a great rate, and I am skimming some off every few days to ensure that there is some clear water available, at least for the Pond Skaters to skate.

In addition to this mating pair, I also got a couple of full frame studies each of the Large Red male in beautiful full mature colours and an Common Blue Azure male.

All with the 7D and Canon 180 f3.5L macro, processed in Capture One V5.1 and Photoshop CS5.

Slightly further away from home, about a mile anyway, I got some great images of male and female Banded Demoiselle eating Mayfly so will post those up for you soon.

As promised I said I would give you a break from the North Uist trip reports to cover off some of my local wildlife.

In my next post, I will bring you some of this years Orchids.  Some are still quite early and some are out quite well, but I did get three different species on Saturday so will share those, before we get back to some more Scottish wildlife.

Update: What I thought were Common Blue Damsels are in fact Azure Damselflies.  I posted a couple of these images on here and had the ID corrected.  Must get myself a better book

Martin

Pond Life Part 3 - Mating and New Arrivals

I recieved at text while I was at work yesterday telling me that the Large Red Damselflies were now mating.  'Get some shots then please' I said.

So with that Jac set about getting a few images that I have borrowed here with her permission.

Full frame, no crop, Canon 7D and Canon 180 f3.5L macro

Messy background, but an intersting balancing act over the Lilly Pads

Apparently, just a few minutes after this shot was taken, a male Smooth Newt grabbed the female, the lower Damselfly, dragged it under water and eat it.  Nature is cruel.  There were just a pair of gossamer wings left on the pond surface when I got home.

Yesterday was really hot here in Warwickshire and we got up to about 24 deg C.  This has resulted in the next species of damsel now emerging.  The Blues are now making there appearance, and here is a freshly emerged one, shot contra jour, yet to develop its full colour.

These flies were emerging and flying away very quickly.  The heat has made a big difference to them when comapred to the Large Reds.

While I am writing, I can give early notice of our next guest photographer, Chris Jones.  Chris's slot will be published next Thursday 29th May, so make sure you drop by.  It is a great blogpost.

Martin

Pond Life Pt 2 - There be monsters

As I mentioned in Pond Life Pt 1 a couple of days ago, I said I would bring you some damselfly images.

After I reported this image above, the first of the Large Red's in the garden this year, there were a couple more the following day.

This one had been out for a few hours, and was still pumping up its wings.  If you look at them, you will see that they are quite mis-shapen at this point still.

This got me thinking that there should be the larva nymphs or naiads somewhere.  So after a hunt round the pond edges,  a number of empty cases like this were located

If you look closely you will see the severed umbilical fronds - the orange cylinders .  But this was just an empty shell.  The live damselfly was not on the same stem.

But a couple of stems away, on the Marsh Marigolds we found this full formed Large Red Damselfly.  Now given that it hasn't fully coloured up, I am not going to hazard a guess as to the sexing of it, but if anybody who is a specific expert can confirm then that would be great.  My knowledge of these is such that I can identify the sex when they have reached colouration after a few days.

The following morning I checked the pond first thing and found my first live 'monster from the deep'.

I watched as the nymph climbed up the stem of the plant and started twitching as the emergence began.

 

About three hours later it was looking like this as it slowly warmed and pumped the blood and fluids round its body.

This one took a full 48 hours to fly.  I think the cold weather over the weekend held back the metamorphosis, as once it got some warm sun on it on Monday afternoon it made good progress and flew.

I now need to look out for the next species, which I will expect with be the Blues.

The little pond has a lot of Caddisfly larva working their way round the bottom, hidden in their leaf or stick homes, so I will watch their progress with continued interest.

Thanks to Jac for the third and fourth images

Martin

Frog Blog Pt 8 - We have legs

Well after the thousands of tadpoles escaped their spawn and spent quite a while together resting and warming in the shallows, they quickly disappeared.  Now they have either been heavily predated or they have gone to the safety of the depths of the pond.  Having watched the pond a lot recently, I believe they have gone to the depths.  Frequent rises to the surface to breathe makes me think this.  It was while looking at one doing this on Thursday night, I noticed that the back legs have started to appear.  So we are on to the next step of the evolution towards 'frogdom'

Meanwhile, the Smooth Newts are now very active, particularly the one I call 'Patch'.  He is a large male, in beautiful breeding colours with his crested mane showing well.  He has a small very light patch over his left eye, so is eadily identifiable.  He is always courting the ladies at the moment, generally with one or two of last years young watching on - learning tips maybe?

Friday saw the arrival of the first Damselfly in the garden. A male Large red Pyrrhosoma nymphula.  This is the earliest I have seen one  that I can remember, and sent my recording to the British Dragonfly Society, where it seems many are being recorded now.

Not a brilliant shot, but a record of the first one of the year (New 7D and Canon 180 macro)

Martin

Local Patch - a quick update from the garden

One of the delights of the wildlife garden that I have developed over the last twelve months means that when I am very busy with other things in my life such as work, decorating and other chores, a bit of relief back to nature is but half a dozen steps away.

While giving my aching arms and hands a rest (sanding down and painting walls, doors and skirting boards!!!) a quick wander round the garden resulting in seeing numerous butterflies; Large and Small Whites, Green Veined Whites, Peacocks, Brimstones, Painted Ladies, Red Admiral and Gatekeepers. The last three named species recently turning up in more prolific numbers. After the very wet week that we have had, it is good to see the sun bringing out the butterflies again.

Down in the pond most of the little froglets have now dispersed out into the undergrowth, and there are now numerous baby Smooth Newts instead. There are still quite a few adult frogs still there too. Damsels are now fewer in number, but Blue tailed were seen today.

I think there is a hedgehog too - I keep putting out some special food which is disappearing.

Overhead, I saw a male Emperor Dragonfly today looking beautiful in the sunshine.

There are still plenty of Swifts overhead here, despite seeing lots going home, as I reported earlier in the week.

Nothing out of the ordinary in the garden on the bird front at the moment. This is a repeat of last year. Best sightings have been watching the adult Blackbirds feeding their juveniles, which I guess must be their second, or possibly even their third clutch of the year.

I have a trip out with a group of other photographers to the Warwickshire Butterfly Conservation site that I reported on here earlier in the year. It will be interesting to see how things have changed since May

Hope I can bring some images back to share with you later in the week.

In the meantime, here are a couple of images of Painted Lady from about an hour ago in the garden here. That Canon 180 macro is just such a peachy lens.



Martin

Trip Reports - Some locations disappoint

Occasionally you find locations in your trips out that you think will be brilliant at certain times of the year. A week ago I went to a site about 40 minutes drive from here with a friend to see if that thought was going to be true.

Well we both got a lot of Horse Fly bites, it was extremely hot and it was a long walk.

The Marsh Orchids had all gone over, there were no dragonflies. Only three species of butterfly, all of which are resident in my garden. so it was a few measly Blue Damselflies.

I used my Canon 70-200f2.8IS L lens with a Kenko 36mm extension tube as the 180 macro was being used but it's owner.....sadly.

However, the zoom plus tube makes a pretty good job of it, although it is not quite as good in my opinion. Although you can be the judge of that from the two images below of a male and a female.




As a postscript, the Guinness afterwards sat by the little river in Bourton on the Water was pure nectar.

And I am sure the site will deliver some gems photographically at other times of te year

Martin

Pond Life

One of the problems of decorating in the house is the limits it places on getting out taking photos.

Well the pond I built last year is providing my rewards for effort spent. Here are a few images of some the species that are dropping by at the moment. Although the frog is very firmly resident along with numerous froglets, and Smooth Newts.

I had my first sighting of an Emperor dragonfly a week or so ago, although sadly not to photograph. A few more butterfly species are calling by as well with Speckled Wood, Small Tortoiseshell, Large White and Comma all seen in the last couple of days.

Blue Tailed, Blue and Large Red damsel flies are shown below, with a Common Frog as the last image.


Martin

Local Patch - Damselflies

I mentioned that I had been seeing Large Red and Common Blue Damsels over my main pond a few posts back. I have also been watching Blue Tailed today and also saw my first Emperor Dragonfly over the garden too. Which brings me to the main part of today's post.

I went back to the Orchid site that is about 3 miles from my house. I had planned to write a tutorial showing the different effects when shooting in bright light on the Bee Orchids, using diffusers and also fill flash, but have chosen to share these with you instead, as I was pleased to get these today.

I had been getting a few shots of Common Spotted Orchids and noticed an abundance of these, so on went the 180 macro.

Common Blue Damselfly - Immature Female

Common Damselfly - Male

Common Blue Damselfly - Male

So look out for the tips and techniques on the lighting at another time. Oh yes and by the way, there are downs of Bee Orchids out now - so I was very happy.

Plus a really useful link to a web resource here on Damsels and Dragonflies

Martin