theonlyD800inthehameau
Photography by theonlydeadheadinthehameau
The only good hornet…
Posted on October 7, 2021
Apologies to Cee, who I know doesn’t really like creepy-crawlies, but just this once I wanted to plead her indulgence.
This evil-looking b*****d is a hornet (‘frelon’ in French) and you don’t mess with them. Their sting is extremely painful and toxic and they are psychopathic about using it.
Swat one and they release a pheromone that summons the swarm. Do that outdoors and you’d better get inside and close the doors and windows pretty sharpish, because their mates will be round looking for revenge. Swat one indoors – well, just stay there.
At this time of year they are dying off (how sad; never mind) and this specimen was crawling on our doorframe one morning, barely alive and about to breathe its last. I wouldn’t have got so close with my smartphone otherwise.
Sorry again, Cee.
52 Week Smartphone Challenge: 16 Shadow
Posted on April 19, 2020
Pollination
Posted on June 2, 2017
For the past week or so our ceanothus bush has been a-buzz with flying insects, including this large black beetle.
Nice to use a little selective colour for a change too.
Macro Moments: Week 6
Posted on July 27, 2016
With an open topic for this week’s Macro Moments Challenge, I’ve chosen this image of a dragonfly feasting on a stem of tiger grass by our pond. Note the delicacy of the lace structure of the wings; there’s also some wear and tear on a couple of the blue plates that cover the abdomen.
Nikon D800, 70-200mm f2.8 lens at 200mm. 1/250 at f8, ISO400. Cropped and adjusted in Lightroom.
Dragonflies
Posted on May 29, 2015
The hot weather yesterday really brought out the dragonflies around our pond…
Butterflies on Buddleia
Posted on September 7, 2014
An hour or so on a sunny afternoon, loitering with intent around the buddleia (well named as the ‘butterfly bush’) produced these images:
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