From your garden/backyard

[Wildieswife]

Thanks for the kind comments on the 'spadgers'. I like the cat pictures - very nice exposures on the whites. Apart from the white on the face she is more or less identical to my second cat that I had for about 23 years. The first lasted around 18 years.

Since my interest in wildlife I won't have another cat but I wouldn't harm any animal. Our garden is now about as cat proof as you can get.

Pat

[Omega892]

Thanks for the cat picture compliments.

Here are a few more close ups

a sole hoverfly



Southern Comma butterfly, I have a couple of others of this one with wings spread



a Red Belted Clear Wing - not often seen - this one has just emerged as an adult and is drying its wings

[sury]

Wow! Nice close ups. Either I am not looking correctly or I have a more sterile
backyard..... I can't seem to find these critters in my backyard. Bane of urban
living I suppose.


Sury

[Birma]

Very nice Lionel - I especially like the Coma

[Wildieswife]

My favourite is the clear wing - the light/sharpening (?) isn't as harsh on this one. Plus it's a real treat to see it - we have nothing like that in our garden!

A Green Veined White on 'Jack by the Hedge' (Alliaria petiolata) which is one of its food plants. We try to grow plants that are useful to invertebrates and we don't use the term 'weed' here



and a very small spider - don't ask me what kind as I don't know



Pat

[Omega892]

Wow! Nice close ups.

I can't seem to find these critters in my backyard. Bane of urban
living I suppose.


Sury

Thanks for the complements.

Maybe you could find a 'roach or two after all they could be good subjects although many will feel nothing but revulsion. Got used to these in the RN the old Vic' (HMS Victorious) was troubled by these. I even had one swim out of my Shredded Wheat and bid me 'good morning' when I poured on some milk (reconstituted of course). But 'roaches don't like the light. I had a weird experience with these critters whilst carrying out rounds, a security and inspection routine carried out by duty supervisory personnel, in a naval base. Walking in through the door of a darkened building and knowing the light switch was on the wall at the far end (yes stupid I know but I didn't build it) I noted a strange feeling under-foot. The explanation came rapidly when I switched on the lights as the 'carpet' suddenly moved out to the walls and vanished. Have you ever walked over a carpet of 'roaches?

But the thing is it is amazing what you can find when you put your mind to it.

And thanks Burma too.

BTW Pat, it was very bright sunlight when I shot that hoverfly and this one and the others were like little jewels sparkling in the light as they flitted about. They never hover in one place for long, maybe a second if you are lucky, focusing being done by camera movement with limited depth of field means one is very keyed-up whilst trying to change point of view and getting into that focused range in about a second. After a few minutes of this I have to have a rest as I get bad muscle spasm.

[Birma]

Hi Lionel - would that be the same HMS Victorious that fought in the Med. and Pacific in WWII? My wife's grandfather looked after the planes on that. He had some fabulous pictures, including the classic "sweeping kamikaze wreckage" off the deck ! (That was his story, anyway.)

Very sad to see picture of the latest Ark going for scrap yesterday .

[sury]

Nice green butterfly Pat. I should let the missus know next time she asks me to pull out weeds that they are food for insects!!!

Interesting story, Lionel. I grew up in India for the first 26 years of my life and not a stranger to cockroaches and mosquitoes.
Though living in US for the past 30 years might have made me a bit "soft".

Sury

[Birma]

Two great 'bug' shots Pat. The butterfly is especially lovely. Must start looking for some when I'm out and about.

[Omega892]

Hi Lionel - would that be the same HMS Victorious that fought in the Med. and Pacific in WWII? My wife's grandfather looked after the planes on that. He had some fabulous pictures, including the classic "sweeping kamikaze wreckage" off the deck ! (That was his story, anyway.)

Yes the same ship although some would say not the same ship for she had undergone a major rebuild during the early 1950s. They took the top off from above 3 deck and fitted a much redesigned flight deck, 4 ft higher up, with the most extreme angled deck of any of ours, 8¾°. A completely new island structure was built and she was fitted with steam catapults and upgraded but fewer arrester wires (twelve down to four) because the assisted landing using first a mirror and then a projector sight improved precision of landing as did the different aircraft types.

I was on her in 1966 with 893 Squadron and Sea Vixen FAW2s. Even then they were turning up spare parts for Corsair fighters in the air stores.

And yes Vic' came under Kamikazi attack several times and took one direct hit on her port accelerator (catapult) adjacent to the after twin gun turret of the port forward group. Another grazed the flight deck aft but by doing so went through a group of parked Corsair fighters.

Our carriers proved rather more resilient than those of the US with also Formidable, Indefatigable and Indomitable all being hit by Kamikazi but carrying on with reduced function.

Very sad to see picture of the latest Ark going for scrap yesterday .

Indeed. Madness. What Argentina has been waiting for perhaps.

[Omega892]

Nice spider shot Pat, here is another. Although some may not think of it as nice.



and I like that butterfly too, sorry if mine are too in your face like this Tortoiseshell



and something that I mentioned elsewhere in connection with a picture of a young Robin this a Painted Lady

[Omega892]

Nice green butterfly Pat. I should let the missus know next time she asks me to pull out weeds that they are food for insects!!!
Sury

Indeed, to my mind many gardens and gardeners have been over clinical and formal with little left to nature.

We don't do things that way leaving nettles and a little Buddleia, Buddleja, to bloom and a few old logs or removed tree stumps left in a corner to rot and be devoured by all those invertebrates that like that sort of think. This keeps many species visiting our garden despite the absence of bird feeders, besides many neighbours have feeders up. Also a patch of grass that is taken over by various wild plants, aka weeds, is left to go its own way. A tree that had to be removed from the front garden was topped and tailed and stripped of branches, these being added to the rot pile, and the trunk was then implanted into a hole in the back garden with holes drilled to take bird goodies including meal worms.

Now another visitors often seen Damselflies the first a Blue Tailed Damselfly



next an Azure Damselfly



another insect often seen about is the Hawthorn Shield Bug, this one came into to investigate the bathroom sink, this taken using the Minolta 100mm Macro D with reversed Rokkor f1.7 on the front attached to a Dynax 7D

[sury]

Nice close ups Lionel. I am wondering if the harshness from flash could be tweaked down a tad.

Sury

[Birma]

I especially like the Painted Lady, Lionel. Lovely flower and blue sky to compliment the butterfly.

[Omega892]

Nice close ups Lionel. I am wondering if the harshness from flash could be tweaked down a tad.

Sury

Your the second one to mention this, I guess that you mean in the Damselfly pic's.

I am not sure how I could tweak it down using a Stofen as I do, maybe its in the PP which also indicates a difference in vision and or priorities.