Horse-biters and co.

Last week, I tried some dragonfly photography at my Brussels patch.  There has been a big influx of Migrant Hawkers, with at least twenty of them present but they don't often sit still long enough for a photo like this one did.  I had often wondered about the Dutch name, which translates as horse-biter, and, sure enough, lots of them seemed to be hanging around the two horses there.  They are not equivorous, however, but just feeding on smaller insects attracted by the horses.  This Ruddy Darter also posed nicely amongst the reeds. 

Best of all, though, was this scarce, female Southern Hawker, which I've only seen a few times before and was ovipositing along the edge of one of the ponds.  There were also a couple of males present but they were constantly patrolling and thus impossible to photograph.

The difference a flash makes

Two years ago, I guided my one and only group of hardcore butterfliers at the lodge.  At first, I was quite surprised, despite the suboptimal light conditions in the understory, to see them using flash for pretty much all of their photographs.  This year, I got to experiment a little and, whilst I found out it doesn't work with all species, especially the really colourful ones which can become washed out, this pair of pictures is a perfect example as to why you should use flash when photographing butterflies in the rainforest.  Above is an Agatha Blue Ringlet (Chloreuptychia agatha) taken with natural light.  Below is the exact same individual taken just a few seconds later with flash!

Look up!

Yesterday, I made the most of the summery weather and headed to the coast, where I immediately located this juvenile Shag in Zeebrugge harbour.  I was trying to take pictures of butterflies but kept getting distracted by the calls of various migrants.  When I did stop to look up, there was a group of 30 Spoonbills passing silently overhead!  There were quite a few of the typical, early autumn migrants around, such as Common Redstarts, Northern Wheatears and Willow Warblers, as well as at least three Pied Flycatchers.  Whilst admiring four wheatears (including one of the much larger Greenlandic subspecies) lined up along a fence, I noticed they were intently watching the sky and looked up to find a Sparrowhawk passing very high overhead.  In the final place I visited, some flowering Water Mint had attracted a feeding frenzy of butterflies containing one Comma, one Red Admiral and at least ten individuals of the spectacular Peacock butterfly (below).