Monday 22 June 2015

Day 22 Go on an Insect Hunt

I decided upon an easy random act of wildness today and so after tea this evening I drove out to Sidings Lane Nature Reserve on the Rainford Bypass with my youngest daughter.  It's only a ten minute drive from my house but it's been over twelve years since I last visited the site.  

The aim of the visit today was to see how many different insects I could find in the hour we were there.  Finding them was one thing, photographing them another. I was either too slow zooming in with the camera and they took off or I couldn't quite get a sharp focus on my subjects.

At first it is quite difficult to find any insects in the grass and bushes but as your eyes become trained you start to see more and more.  There wasn't a massive variety of insects on show tonight but we did manage to find a small selection in the hour we were there.

I will definitely make more of an effort to visit this site and would like to come early one morning to see if I can spot a fox or even a badger.  One thing I will do after todays visit is make sure I master the manual focus feature of my camera.

Following the woodland
path to the meadow

The woodland path

The meadow

Our first bug find of the day

Daughter looking for insects

Ants on a prickly plant

Green metallic fly sadly out of focus

Daughter spots something

One of many snails we found

Fly

Time for a quick photo

The pond at the Nature Reserve

A Moth

A Large Red Damselfly

Daughter checking out the pond

Lily Pads

The pond to ourselves


The pond

A Water Lily

Longhorn Moth

More flies

Great colours



Daughter finds some more Ants

Ants

Copulating flies

Moth

Me looking for insects

Wildflowers

One of many areas where
we looked for insects

Bee in a leaf

Bee on a flower
(top view)

Bee on a flower
(side view)

Bee on a leaf

Cleaning our shoes
before we drive home

7 comments:

  1. Lovely photos! Looks a great place and you spotted lots of insects. I'm finding the same problems with my camera either too slow to capture things or can't focus in well enough to get a good shot:)

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Rosie. I've just downloaded the manual for my camera and have been looking at the section on focusing.

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  2. Great photos. I'm really trying to appreciate bugs more but it's still a fine line between being creeped out or fascinated!

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  3. I always love bug hunting! I do it wherever I go, there are always so many to find! I even keep a sweep net in my car, though I don't use it that often! You found a good selection!

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