Bugs and Beetles

Time is always short and photographs of insects usually need a good bit of research to enable names to be put to them. Hence they tend to get dumped into a folder to be looked at later. A recent dull and windy afternoon, the folder finally gets opened and the first one I look at is a Hawthorn Shieldbug. A bit of a coincidence as I had just been looking at on-line Atlas of Sussex Shieldbugs. What a great resource, lots of data and a clear demonstration that the information that you add is actually being used.

Thought I would add my Shieldbug but then realised that I hadn't made a note of where I saw it. I need to be a bit more focused next time.

Hawthorn Shieldbug -  Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale

Insects are a fascinating subject when it comes to photography. I have an aversion to netting them and sticking pins in them but getting a decent picture in their natural environment is always a great challenge. Perhaps, if I ever tire of taking pictures of the same old birds over and over again, I will find the time to get more involved.

Until then here are just a few shots from around the Sussex area.

Spotted Longhorn Beetle  -  Rutpela maculata

Four banded Longhorn Beetle  -  Leptura quadrifasciata

Rhopalidae Corizus hyoscyami

Cardinal Beetle  -  Pyrochroa serraticornis

Black-headed Cardinal Beetle  -  Pyrochroa coccinea

Red Lily Beetle  -  Lilioceris lilii

Green Rose Chaffer - Cetonia aurata     (Not Sussex)

Green Rose Chaffer - Cetonia aurata    (Not Sussex)

Mating Bloody-nosed Beetles  -  Timarcha tenebricosa     (this one I have blogged before)

Green Tiger Beetle  -  Cicindela campestris

Thick-legged Flower Beetle  -  Oedemera nobilis

Harlequin Ladybird Larvae  -  Harmonia axyridis

As always, if I have made any mistakes in identification, please let me know. Flies Hoverflies and Bees to follow.

Great Reed Warbler

Reports were still being posted of the Great Reed Warbler singing his heart out every day at Paxton Pits. This has been going on for over three weeks now and with the numbers of visitors probably starting to reduce it seemed to be time for a visit.

Any location, that involves me having to travel around the M25, takes some serious consideration before I decide to take it on. However, this would be a life tick for me, so in the end I decided to go. An early start saw me on site by around 08.30. A fifteen minute walk got me to the location, at the southern end of Washout Pit, where I found about half a dozen people already waiting for a view of the bird.

The reports had been correct. It may not show that often but it sings non stop. I spent the next three hours trying to spot it and to track its movement from the song coming from deep within the reed bed.

The song was loud and distinct and you always felt that it was close by and about to show. It did, eventually, and we had about five minutes of it sitting out on top of the reeds still belting out the song.

I had been wondering why the bird had stayed in the same location for so long. It turns out that it is protected by a large expanse of water. It is probably just as well. We all feel that we are the "special one" and should be allowed a much closer view than everyone else. Without the water someone would have got too close and flushed it by now.

My shots are a big crop but they are the best I could get and it was nice to come away with a record shot as well as a life tick.

Not much else photographed that day although there were Hobby and Nightingales at the site. I got a few shots of Damselflies that will be in the next blog and then later a pair of juvenile Grey Partridge attempting to blend in with the background......

...... and a bit of colour with a Cardinal Beetle.

The day turned out to be a bit more of a twitch than I would have liked and it involved a lot of standing around and waiting but I can't complain at the outcome.