Pansy

Yesterday I was aiming for gross, but obviously failed as only a few of you found the image disturbing, one member even said that I make flies look good. Obviously an aspect of my photography that I need to work on. Many thanks for all the great comments on what might have seemed a strange selection for a blip considering the available choices that I had.

This has been a tremendous blip month for me, I collected more than 300 blippable images. I have photographed some amazing insects and learned a lot in the process. It has been frustrating not to identify some of the blipped insects, like the hairy bee 3rd Nov, the large bee 13th Nov, the spider 21st Nov and the dragonfly 23rd Nov, despite countless hours sifting through the internet. It is a pity that I cannot go back and label some of the insects that I have identified, but the five day limit for edits has expired.

What amazes me in an exasperating way, is the lack of easy to navigate insect identification websites. There are plenty of insect websites, but if you don't know the taxonomy and don't have an ology, you are screwed. I found a reasonable site for dragonflies, but you still have to sift through hundreds of pictures, but at least the search is regionalized into countries. I found one reasonable butterfly site that you can quickly scan through thumbnails of regionalized butterflies, but the selection is quite small. You would think that one of the natural history museums would have got to grips with this deficiency.

Today, arriving at the grove, I thought that I was in for another treat. The sun was out, the sky was clear, I could see dragons and butterflies in abundance. After ninety minutes in the sweltering heat and only sixteen shots in my camera of a ladybird and a couple of crickets, I realized that the blip monster was having a laugh. A normal session would be 90 shots in 16 minutes, not the other way around. The heat took its toll and I started to feel faint, so I called time and went back for a lie down.

I processed the meager take but there was nothing worth keeping, so I binned the lot. Fortunately a couple of hours later the sky clouded over and I was able to return. The sun kept poking through and frying my brain, but I was able to collect usable images of a dragon, cricket and this butterfly.

The dragon was good, but a repeat. The cricket shot was very good but the female butterfly matches up with the mating pair shot from a few days ago. Also she was a complete specimen, a rarity with all the hungry night critters. I saw lots of lizards, I chased a big one all over the grove, but just could not get close enough for a shot. The blip day was rescued, but I need another lie down now.

Dave