{"id":1977,"date":"2011-07-03T01:07:19","date_gmt":"2011-07-03T00:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/archives\/1977"},"modified":"2013-11-09T12:35:56","modified_gmt":"2013-11-09T12:35:56","slug":"dragonflies-and-hawk-moths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/dragonflies-and-hawk-moths\/","title":{"rendered":"Dragonflies and Hawk-Moths"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

This is a follow-up to yesterday's post. As expected, all the dragonfly nymphs had emerged by this morning and I was greeted in the garden by several fine-looking common darter dragonflies.
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And there may be more tomorrow. I spotted three more nymphs crawling out of the pond tonight.
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The garden is a hive of insect activity at the moment. Spiders are building webs, small speckled bush crickets and common grasshoppers are flourishing, the bees are buzzing, and our hummingbird hawk-moth is making repeated circuits of the lavender. I love these moths. As well as being large and prone to hovering more or less in one spot (albeit briefly), they are wonderfully predictable. They return time and again to the same feeding points so if you miss a shot the first time it's simply a matter of waiting until it returns. They're quick, and dart about; but with patience it is possible to get some usable shots (among the innumerable unusable ones).
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One brief fox sighting today. A vixen flew across the back of the garden early evening. I don't think she realized we were in the garden when she dropped down over the fence. She didn't hang about.
\"Nature<\/a><\/span>
Camera note: all shots taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100mm f\/2.8L macro IS USM lens, apart from the final shot which was taken with the EF 400mm f\/5.6L USM lens.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[77,991,251],"tags":[748,746],"class_list":["post-1977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dragonfly","category-insects-2","category-moth","tag-common-darter-dragonfly","tag-hummingbird-hawk-moth","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t