Everything is Permuted

I'm still hammering away at long exposure shots of seagulls. It suits the time of year, and I wasn't able to get out in the brief period of sunshine we had in the middle of the day. So more blurs to puzzle over!






I promised a couple of surprises as well.

The first was in the pond just a few minutes ago. I noticed something moving on the surface. On closer inspection it turned out to be a dragonfly struggling to free itself from the weed. I helped it on to a small piece of bark (which it gripped) and transported to a bush so that it could dry off. It seems exceptionally late in the year, and I'm not sure of the species. I really don't expect to be photographing dragonflies at this time of year, but it says something for the unusually mild weather we've been having (despite the fogs).


The second surprise is from last night's trailcam. It's Shutterbug with a companion. They've been together several times recently. A promising sign for this time of year..


Last up is not so much a surprise, but a rarety for the blog. It's yours truly taken a few nights ago while I was photographing Shutterbug. The trailcam was set, and fired a few shots while I was doing the same. Not often that I get the wrong side of the camera!





Camera note: gulls taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens. Dragonfly and fox taken with the EF 100mm f/2.8L macro IS USM lens. Trail cam images by the Bushnell Trophy Cam.

Just a few shots today, taken early this evening, of a common darter that I spotted resting on a branch of our small apple tree.








Camera note: all shots taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100mm f/2.8L macro IS USM lens.

Our garden pond has been hiding secrets for the past year; secrets in the form of larvae of the common darter dragonfly. The larvae develop for about a year before emerging, lurking deep in the murkiness of the pond. For the past couple of days I've noticed them crawling to the fringes of the pond, and this morning two more were making the journey. To help them I placed a couple of sticks at the edge of the pond. They took the hint. The photos that follow show some highlights from a much longer sequence, which also includes video (yet to be edited). The sequence shown lasted about 40 minutes. It was another hour or so before it took its first flight.
Ascending the stick

Breaking out





The pale 'arm' you can see is the tightly packed wings

Watching them I wondered how they would get themselves the right way up. This clip shows how. It's an extract from the much longer sequence I filmed, but that will take me time to edit. It shows the second of the two dragonflies I was watching.


Back to the main subject, now the right way up.
The wings have extended, but are still milky.

15 minutes later

This last shot is one of the other emerging darters (it was resting before its first flight). Just my way of signing off! I'll try to sort the full video out over the next week (it will take a while, a lot to edit).


Camera note: all shots and video clip taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100mm f/2.8L macro IS USM lens.