Southern Blue Damselfly (Female) Well I had been home for 4 days, the weather was real downer, having had temperatures in the high 20's last week then have low teens this, it was a bit of a shock to the system, rain, rain and more rain, I thought I would phone up my mate Frank see how he was doing, he was out at Higher Hyde Heath, said it was okay up there, no rain at all, so jumped in the car and shot off.

Now birding in the poor light was out of the question, so bugs butterflies and insects were on the agenda, great to do something different, so instead of using the big 400mm lens, I put on the Sigma 100 macro with the flash gun, the flash helps to bring out the detail on the beasties, it didn't take long to find stuff, it is a great buzz getting close to insects and things that we would never normally notice, found loads of Damselflies by the pond, it wasn't long before we headed off to Wareham, to another place to find some Dragonflies it had started to warm up a bit now so our hopes were high of finding something good.

On arriving at the Heath we quickly ate lunch, then set off down the lane to the pond, a Cuckoo could be heard near by, never saw a sausage on the path, we hunted for another Cuckoo calling at the lake, saw it but couldn't get near it, now our initial enthusiasm was beginning to wane, I spotted a Silver Studded Blue Butterfly, the first of the year, then a newly emerged Black Tailed Skimmer, then I saw something right up my street, a Slug, it had crawled out on some gorse, it had got itself into a difficult position, the spikes of the gorse were clearly sticking in, and it must have been agony, not being one to interfere with nature, I just took loads of pictures, it didn't no what to do, to let go and fall, or turn over the end and slide back against the spikes, delightful :-)

Found my first Keeled Skimmer of the year then a Scarce Chaser, I hadn't seen one of these for a couple of years, all of these pics are taken using a macro lens, it really is great fun, if you have a camera try it, I will finish this blog with the usual stream of pics, the last is a pair Snipe Flies bonking, Life Goes On, Happy Days :-) Southern Blue Damselfly (Female) Southern Blue DamselflyNot 100% sure on the ID here Azure Blue DamselflyNot 100% sure on the ID here Doc Bug Hairy Shieldbug Ground HopperNot sure which one this is Silver Studded BlueNot 100% sure on the ID here Black Tailed Skimmer (Female) Keeled Skimmer Dragonfly Slug on GorseThis looked really painful, looks like it had got itself in a very difficult position Scarce Chaser Dragonfly Marsh SnipeflyNo Comment :-0