North Bull Island

I seem to be spending a lot of time on North Bull Island lately, trying to get to grips with the multitude of wildlife opportunities that a photographer can expect when he gets here. It’s amazing how much you can learn about your chosen craft. No matter how much you know, something new will always pop out of the woodwork and surprise you. I liken it to fishing in that even if you go out purposely looking for a specific subject you can often come back with a different, and very unexpected, catch in the bag.

I was walking through the Marram Grass looking for Common Blue butterflys resting on the stems when I came across a curious little bug of some sort. I had a feeling that it was the larvae stage of something but quite what that something was I had no idea. There was something familiar about it, though I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. It turned out to be the larvae stage of a ladybird. As you can see in the photo, the head is still very recognisable as that of a ladybird but the rest of the body couldn’t be more different. When seeing one of the photos, my wife likened it to a tiny armadillo. It does bear a strange resemblance to one.

Common Blue butterflies (Polyommatus icarus) and Six Spotted Burnets (Zygaena filipendulae) are now in abundance on the island accompanied by a lot of Meadow Browns (Maniola jurtina) but time moves quickly in nature and the blues in particular will start to disappear for the year soon enough. The aforementioned Ladybirds are everywhere. It’s the seven spotted variety that appear to be dominant and you can see plenty on the grasses where the dunes meet the beach proper. Get out and have a nose around before winter sets in and they’re all gone for another season.

I also came across a fabulous looking moth called the Drinker ( Euthrix potatoria) which is a lovely orange brown colour and gets it’s name apparently from it’s caterpillars which have a penchant for drinking drops of dew.

Most peoples thoughts will hardly have shifted into winter mode yet, but I'm busy trying to work out where the best position for a hide will be this winter. The island is a nature reserve and a very important bird sanctuary for many geographically important species. As the insects begin to disappear, my thoughts will start to turn to what can be captured on film over the winter months. I'm quite looking forward the temperature dipping a few degrees.