COMMON DARTERS AT COTTAM.

Over the last couple of weeks I`ve been trying to photograph common darter dragonflies at Cottam,there`s been about 40-50  of these dragonflies on the wing and I`ve  been trying different methods of attack to capture images,chasing,sitting down and waiting or selecting a nice perch and hoping.Concentrating on getting better composition and clear background I`ve been very selective of the kind of image I wanted.All the images I`ve posted are taken with a canon 100mm macro with no is hand held,on occasions with stealth I could get very close to the dragonflies and have posted a few of my efforts below.

THE COMMON BLUE BUTTERFLY.

Over the last couple of weeks I`ve been concentrating on photographing butterflies and dragonflies.On the Fairhaven sand dunes [contrary to what Peter Woodruff has found on his local patch at Cockersands] hundreds and hundreds of common  blue butterflies along with good numbers of meadow brown,small heath,grayling have been present along with small numbers of small copper butterflies.The grayling has been my target butterfly this summer but I couldn`t resist photographing the beautiful common blue and some of my efforts are posted below

YOUNG COMMON TERN PHOTOS.

As the colony of terns expands at Preston Dock more and more aggression is shown is shown by the parent birds to one another,and life is very much on a knife edge for the young terns.Often the young terns end up in the water but with a bit of luck manage to get back to the nest,unfortunately this 2 -3 day old chick ended up in the water and strong winds blew it further away from the nest and even with the frantic calls and encouragement from its parents it never made it back to the nest.           A selection of photos of the older chicks learning to fly and dive in the water showing how quick they have to grow and learn in order to survive are also included.

                                                                      

THE LARGE HEATH BUTTERFLY.

The large heath butterfly is a rare butterfly in England with just a few sites in Cumbria,North Yorkshire and two sites in Lancashire.The needs of the butterfly are for HARE`S-TAIL COTTONGRASS for egg laying and food for the caterpillar and CROSS-LEAVED HEATH which is the nectar plant for the butterfly.

I visited a small site in Lancashire to try and photograph this rare butterfly,visiting  this site by yourself (like me) is not recommended as the butterfly easliy disappears into it`s surroundings while underfoot the bog is very uneven and you can easily drop down a couple of foot,not recommended while carring expensive photo equipment.If the bog doesn`t get you the horse flies will.

I`ve posted images of the hare`s-tail cottongrass,cross-leaved heath and the rare large heath butterfly.

YOUNG PEREGRINE FALCONS.

I`ve made plenty of early morning visits over the last month or so to the peregrines and even though there have been restricted views this year due to the nest being relocated I`ve managed to capture some images.Patience and perseverance has certainly been needed this year but I`m more than happy with the results.

LOCAL BUTTERFLIES.

I`m posting a few images of the local butterflies,a large white on tall verbena in the garden,gatekeeper,meadow brown and large skipper down at Newton Marsh.

BROWN HARES PART THREE.

I thought I would share a bit of the the behavior that was captured with the lens.The first image is the alpha male running back to the female after chasing of a rival,for a couple of strides it bounced up and down like an african springbok showing it`s fitness to it`s rivals or enemy,

The second image I saw quite alot and it`s the female flirting with the male by jumpimg over it..The third image is I think two males biting lumps of fur out of each other,the fourth is the chase.The last three images are of the close encounter I had with the hares,the first being that close I couldn`t focus,I`m sure that only for the noise of the camera shutter I could have touched them. WHAT A GREAT EXPERIANCE.