Not so Ugly Bug Ball

One of the genre's of photography that I really enjoy is macro - particularly shots of insect life .  I find the colours and details fascinating, and have several favourite locations to visit near by, when I'm in the mood for a 'bug hunt'.  With the forecast of heavy rain and even thunder proving to be completely wrong yesterday, and instead being given warm temperatures, blue skies and sun, I headed down to one of my 'spots' and spent an hour or so stalking the small creatures that inhabit the Ffrwd.


The thistle flowers, in full bloom, were doing a great job of attracting several variety's of wasps and bee's

You can see the pollen particles, glistening all over the bee's head .




And I also found this tiny fellow, enjoying the blossoms

                                      And I came a cross a couple of crickets -

Visually, crickets really intrigue me - The way their bodies are articulated is fascinating.  My DS, Ben, allowed one to pose on his hand, to let me try for a really detailed shot of it.

And the wee chap turned and posed beautifully , showing another reason why I find so many insects fascinating - their faces are almost expressive . . .

 

He could almost be saying "You looking at me?"

As far as I am concerned, The Ffrwd is one of two places where I am almost guaranteed shots of two of my favourite subjects - Damsels and Dragon flies.

This day, the damsels were very much in evidence, but for some reasons, were way too busy flying around to sit and pose for me - this was the only decent shot I got

 

But the dragon flies were a whole other story - And dotted amongst the reeds on the pond, were a host of dragon fly nymph cases, evidence that several had hatched recently - they can be hard to spot, so I've circled the casing on this shot.

I lost count of how many I spotted yesterday, nearly all the same species - the Common Darter, with common being the operative word, considering the numbers of them I saw.

But I also spotted this big guy - who I think is a broad bodied Chaser

         

Again - dragon flies faces can seem to be extremely expressive.

This one looks up and spots the camera pointing at him . . . 

. . .  and appears to smile !

 Damsel flies are equally 'expressive' - this shot was taken last year, at my other favourite bug spot, and shows a damsels face clearly - compared to the slightly 'daft', nearly cartoon expression on a dragons face (due to their amazing bug eyes being so close together as to be almost comical), damsels can look very fierce

 You can see the difference in the positioning of the eyes, between damsels and dragons - that, and the way they hold their wings is how I tell them apart.





And my favourite shot of the day - this shows how incredibly  beautiful these creatures are -

Hoping now for at least one more warm and sunny day, so I can head to my other favourite 'bug spot', to see what else I can capture .