Sunday 2 July 2017

The height of summer madness...

So high summer begins... as is typical of the UK, we have a period of insanely hot weather followed by rains and chill - can you plan anything? Not really...

The month started and ended with notable events, with some general photography in between plus some cool wildlife sightings and trips out.

The month started with a 4-day trip up to Glasgow; Lucy and Quinn explored the galleries and museums and I managed to get up to the Trossachs and Highlands for some landscape work. Weather was poor one day but good the next... great fun was had I can assure you...I love Scotland.























An enjoyable trip and the drive was not too onerous.

Not many days after this I visited a Nature Reserve up the road called Paxton Pits with my great friend and colleague Nick, who not only is an excellent all round naturalist but the county recorder for Lincolnshire for dragonflies. The reason for the visit to Paxton was to hunt for two specific species with restricted distribution - Norfolk hawker and scarce chaser. Nick had not seen the latter in the UK so the hunt was on. Both species were found, with the latter being particularly photogenic...




This is the male, resting on a hedgerow.

And so the month progressed to the next trip - Quinn was taken to the Aldeburgh Festival to see A Midsummer Night's Dream - a special trip with his mum and his God Mother. I took the opportunity to drive and spent the evening on the beach, photographing some lovely specialities of shingle habitats...





River estuary approaching sunset





Yachts racing in low, evening light...





Restharrow...




Sea bindweed...



Sea-Kale...




Sea-pea...




Long-horned poppy...



Long-horned poppy on a shingle bank.

The only thing that spoiled the evening was a puncture that I had to repair as the sun went down.  Otherwise a very enjoyable evening.

A village highlight in June was the annual 10Km charity run and additional daily fun-run - have covered this for the organisers for the last cover of years as the "photographer out on the course" - I never fail to be impressed by the effort people put in to organising and participating in this event.

My final selection of images are from a trip out onto the Fen late in the month. As usual I was looking for invertebrates...





Banded demoiselle...



Roesel's bush-cricket...



Common blue damselfly...




Damselflies mating...



Flower beetle...




Mating horse flies...





Painted lady...




Scorpion-fly...

Just as an add-on, I continue to trap and record moths in my garden and this month I trapped a lovely species, relatively common but unknown to many... the garden tiger...





Species of the month...


That about wraps it up for June - the other major event was that I finally made the trip to the rebel alliance and swapped my raging Lenovo laptop (bought in the UAE) for a 27" iMac. I should have made the trip earlier - it is delight to use and has changed my appreciation of my work. Also the seamless link between my iPhone and iPads makes work so much easier.


What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.


So long all until the next time, love and peace to you all, wherever you maybe...

Alex