As for the weather it was inevitable that we were going to get a hosepipe ban up here in Lancashire, we havn’t had much rain since it snowed and the major reservoirs in the area are only at around 50% capacity. Saying that, as I look out of the window, it is currently chucking it down but  I think it will need a few weeks of sustained rain to make much of a difference.

The water shortage is undoubtedly caused by the low rainfall this year but I’m sure a lot more could be done by the water suppliers to fix leaks. To give you an example there was a leak in the centre of Bolton near a well known night club that was leaking for at least 2 months – it must have wasted far more in that time than a whole village of hosepipes.

Thank god sea fishing doesn’t need rain, if anything fresh water entering the sea in quantity at river estuaries can push the fish out to the more salty depths making a trip to these areas end up in a big fat blank. Thankfully Anglesey doesn’t really suffer from this and so long as you stay safe and be careful on wet slippery rocks, rain doesn’t make a lot of difference.

Were they in Queens Park where I’d seen the adult and been looking all week? Were they hell… this morning I parked the car and not  3 feet from the door was a mass of tiny yellow and black warriors.Looking back at last year I think they’re a bit behind but who can blame them – it was a bit of a chilly start to the year…

Luckily I had the ‘baby’ camera with me, the Canon Powershot A640 so I was able to get a relatively good close-up although the breeze made it a bit tricky. The more I use the A640 the more I like it even though I’ve had it for ages. Sometimes I get fixated in thinking that the EOS 450D with all it’s lenses and gizmos is always better and most of the time it is but I can put the Powershot in my pocket, it takes good pictures and it’s macro facility is astounding so from now on when I go out deliberately to take a few photographs I’m going to take them both.

Spotted a Comma butterfly newly hatched and hanging of it’s old crysalis yesterday but didn’t have a camera with me but I’ve got my eye on another pupae which hopefully should ‘hatch’ soon – it would be good to grab a shot of the butterfly emerging but the weather is a bit touch and go in the North West at the moment and catching it at that stage will need a fair bit of luck.

Alder Leaf Beetles getting a bit amorous

Following on from my previous attempts at photographing beetles around Queens Park in Bolton I spotted some small dark metallic blue ones, very similar to the Green Dock Beetles I’d photographed a few weeks ago.

I only had the ‘small’ camera, Canon Powershot A640, with me but as it turned out this was far more capable of close ups than my EOS 450D although the fact the beetles were hardly moving and I could get about 2cm away from them may have helped.

I had no idea what they were so I posted the photo on the Wild About Britain website where a very helpful person identified them as Alder Leaf Beetles (Agelastica alni). There were quite a few, feeding on the new Hazel leaves with the females, swollen with eggs, being pursued by the slightly smaller males.

Pretending to be a wasp, Hoverfly (Chrysotoxum elegans)

If there’s one thing we know how to do well in this country it’s the nature documentary – hasn’t BBC Springwatch been great and we’re only into week one. Needless to say, with the beautiful weather we’ve been having and being a bit inspired by Springwatch I ventured out to Queens Park in Bolton during my lunch hour to see what mini beasts I could snap.

Lovely colours on these tiny mating Green Dock Beetles

There were tiny metallic green beetles on all the Dock along the edge of the River Croal which I later learned (by the powers of the internet) were Green Dock Beetle (Gastrophysa viridula). The male above is obscuring an egg laden female but I managed to grab a photo of another that ha shaken off her amorous friends.

Gravid (with eggs) Green Dock Beetle female

You can see just how many eggs she is carrying as her abdomen is so swollen. Sticking with these little green beauties I spotted a cluster of their yellow eggs on the underside of the Dock so I’ll be keeping an eye on these to see when they hatch.

It was also interesting, once I ‘got my eye in’ just how many different species of insect can be seen in a town park. There’s nothing unusual about Queens Park, it has all the usual ponds, trees, grass with a mixture of untended patches but this seems to provide an excellent habitat for all sorts of creatures.

The first photograph is one such. I’m sure we’ve all seen Hoverflies but have we ever actually looked at them? I know I haven’t but after sitting still for a while the one above just came and sat right in front of me – it would have been rude not to photograph him. I’ve checked on the internet and I’m fairly sure it’s a normal Hoverfly (Chrysotoxum elegans) but I’m no insect expert so I’m willing to be corrected. It’s completely harmless unless you’re about the size of an aphid but mimics the markings of a Wasp to try and fool predators into not eating it.

Mating pair of Common Blue Damselflies

And it wouldn’t be much of a photography trip at this time of year without at least one image of these beautiful Common Blue Damselflies (Enallagma cyathigerum). There are more this year than I’ve seen for some time and the larger of the ponds was covered in mated pairs laying the eggs of the next generation.

One thing that was lacking was the usual butterfly suspects but after spotting a patch of nettles that we’re rapidly being demolished I noticed a group of well grown Red Admiral caterpillars munching them down to their flower tops. Hopefully we’ll see the adults later in the year.

It was around this time last year that we had the huge influx of Painted Lady butterflies and although I’ve not seen any yet, hopefully with recent hot spell will convince them to fly North once more.

All of the photo’s we’re taken using the ‘standard’ 18-55mm kit lens that came with the Canon EOS450D and although I’m sure a dedicated macro lens would be sharper and give me more options I’m happy with the results.

No Springwatch till next Monday and more hot weather forecast – looks like i’ll be taking a few more…

A lazy hazy day sea fishing on the River Douglas

I’ve not been sea fishing for a while, or any other type of fishing for that matter. Not for any specific reason just other stuff to do around the house and garden while the weather is good. But with the weather being so good this past weekend I couldn’t resist a walk along our local river, The River Douglas, to see what was going on.

The river itself was quite quiet with the usual suspects bobbing along in the wakes of a few boats returning from sea fishing off Blackpool; Mallard, Shelduck, Geese and Swans with Oyster Catchers watching them from the shore.

The banks are very very dry at the moment and keeping low I managed to get a snap of a Skylark before he shot skyward proclaiming to all comers that this was his territory. Nothing quiet announces that Summer is approaching as the never ending song of this small unobtrusive bird with the most amazing song.

Further along the river there were hordes of people fishing. I say hordes – I mean more than 2, which is hordes for here. I don’t think anyone was having much luck but then I’m fairly sure they were all using Mackerel and realistically at this time of year, in the River Douglas or the River Ribble (of which the Douglas is a tributary) you’d probably be better off using peeler crab to catch the Flounder they were all after.

There were a lot of domestic (big white) Geese on the river with young so I couldn’t resist this final shot.

I’m not sure who is who’s parent but then I guess they’re not bothered either – so long as they get fed. Another great walk along a river that always makes me smile.

"Oy, you with your wings out - get off my rock"

Anglesey is a fantastic place for any nature lover, in fact anyone who just likes being outside so while we weren’t fishing or just lazing about we did manage to go for the odd walk, more of a stroll really – didn’t want to tax ourselves after all…

You can tell spring is finally here though as a lot of our avian friends that spend the winter months somewhere a bit warmer are finally arriving.

Walking around the inland sea just to the southwest of Penrhos, on the other side of the main road there were all sorts of small birds, most of which were to far away to identify – or at least by me.

The Wheatear were very obliging though – sitting nice and still on the rocks to get their portrait taken.

There were plenty of the usual subjects, waders of all varieties and in the distance, diving for small fish we could make out a few Sandwich Terns – a beautiful bird with a voice that just doesn’t match the grace of this summer visitor.

A lot of the birds were paired up including Cormorants on almost every exposed rock and a lot of Red-breasted merganser. I’d never managed to get close enough to these sea going, fish eating ducks but on our last day, while having our final lunch on the island this pair swam right in front of us.

Yep – Spring is certainly in the air and everything is paired up – I wonder how many young these birds will produce and if we’ll see them when we go back in a couple of months.

Spring Couples - Oyster Catchers, Shelducks and Avocets

As the weather has been so great recently I went for a long walk along our local river, the Douglas to practice my photography skills and to see if i could manage to get a half decent image of birds in flight with my current equipment.

With the dry weather and the sun the banks of the River Douglas had dried considerably leaving shallow pools for wading birds to sift through for food, the usual suspects were in abundance; Oyster Catcher, Curlew, Shelduck, Mallard but it’s the first time I’ve seen Avocet on my local patch although they do breed at RSB Marshside, Southport which is about 10 miles up the coast.

As for catching birds in flight? These are the best of a LOT of photographs.

Lapwing on flight -probably pushing the lens a little here

Shelducks in flight - sometimes luck is all you need...

I’m pleased with the one of the Shelducks which just flew right past me while I had the camera set up ready to go, although the sky could have been a bit more interesting – can’t have it all I guess. The Lapwing was a bit tougher, they fly very erratically at this time of year and realistically the lens I have (Canon 55-250) isn’t up to the job – hence they’re a bit blurred, although still recognisable.

Still… practice makes perfect.

As usual I took my camera but I utterly failed at the ‘wildlife cameraman’ bit, it wasn’t my fault… even Megan was stunned. As we rounded a bend in the lane running towards us came three European Hares (Lepus Europaeus). We were so shocked we just stood there until they got within about 10 feet, stopped, looked us up and down, then jumped in the adjacent field and sped over the grass.

To see a wild Hare that close was fantastic so we laughed and joked about it and my failure to capture it on camera until I spotted four more running along the wall, ready to speed across the field after the previous three. This time I was ready and although the camera setup wasn’t perfect, I managed to snap this bouncy fellow.

I’ve seen Hares in this part of the country before but never so bold or so many at once. Only when you actually see one in the wild do you truly realise the only relationship between Hares and Rabbits is the general shape – they’re bigger than a large cat and very, very fast. If I were a predator I’d have second thoughts tackling one of these guys.

Now that's the way to fish a pond...

On Thursday I was doing my usual lunchtime walk round Queens Park, Bolton when I came across this, a strange, but probably easier, way to catch the fish i thought…

What is actually happening is that the park has been granted some money from the lottery fund and part of the re-development is tidying up the ponds (inside and on the banks) and making them more accessible for everyone, anglers included. So first they have to move the fish out of a pond that’s got all sorts of junk in it, not an easy task and I’d arrived just after they’d electro-fished the pond and moved most of the fish to another.

What this involves is using a small voltage in the water to stun the fish, gather them up and transfer them somewhere else, where in a few minutes they’ll swim off non the wiser.

As you can see once they’d moved the majority of the fish they ‘netted’ the pond. With all the junk that has accumulated in the pond; trees, cans, bikes, shopping trolleys, you name it, was a fairly arduous task so, as I was in my work clothes – I left them to it…

It’s great to see some work being done in the park, it’s a beautiful place and only 5 minutes from the shopping center of Bolton – well worth a visit if you’re ever in the area.

All sorts of ducks on the River Douglas

After some fairly dismal weather these past couple of months I finally managed to get out for a walk along our local river, the Douglas, and as I’m a bit (understatement of the century) rusty I took out my camera just to check it (and me) is working as it should.

There wasn’t really much to see exfcept a lot of ducks including some Widgeon (which make the amazing whistling noise), Teal, Shelducks and the usual suspects of Mallard and Oyster catchers. I tried to get some pictures of them in flight but a small Duck is very very fast so I gave up.

Spring was certainly in the air today though as i saw a few lambs on my way down to the river, thankfully the boys below didn’t have any as it’s best to stay out of the way of sheep at lambing time so as not to distress the ewes and their newly birthed lambs.

"The Managment" of the banks bleats "non shall pass"

They do look a bit like the mafia though and it felt like I was trespassing on their field…

Hopefully, now the weather seems to be changing for the better I’ll get out fishing, it was almost this time last year that we fished this very river and caught a few Flounder – there were a few people fishing today but nobody had caught anything. It seems the seasons are a bit late this year, but i seem to recall someone saying that a cold winter heralds a hot summer – so here’s hoping…