Unidentified Insects

I have opened a new gallery on the website entitled "Unidentified Insects". The title speaks for itself. Insects can be notoriously difficult to identify. Even when you have corrobberating photographic evidence from books or the web there is still a margin for error. It bothers me that customers may purchase a print from me thinking it
is a certain insect, only to find out at a later date that it is the wrong species. Until I get absolute confirmation from an expert, I think this is probably the best route to take. Any and all contributions from visitors to this blog or the website on identities will be most appreciated. Hopefully I can ensure that there are no mistakes made on identifications.

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.

Nature On Your Doorstep

It always amazes me how far people will travel to see wildlife when there is every chance that you can see the same animals in your own area. Okay, there are always exceptions. If you live in the middle of a city like Dublin, you’re unlikely to see Pine Martins hopping from building to building while walking down Grafton Street. There are however, plenty of places in Dublin where you can see a huge range of wildlife species. It all depends what you are looking for.

On a recent photo session down the causeway road, heading towards Dollymount, I came across 5 species of butterfly. They were Ringlet (Aphantopus hyperantus), Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina), Small Heath (Coenonympha pamphilus), Small Tortoiseshell (Nymphalis urticae) and Green Veined White (Pieris napi). Cinnabar and Burnet Moths were busy feeding on Thistle beside the interpretive centre. There was a Kestrel hovering above the dunes and Egrets and Herons feeding at the waters edge on the mudflats. Curlews and Oystercatchers flew overhead and the sound of Terns was coming from the beach, presumably they were feeding on Sandeels.

The bright yellow flowers of Birdsfoot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) mixed in well with the lilac coloured Thistle heads while in the dunes Hares Foot Clover (Trifolium arvense) mixed with Kidney Vetch (Anthyllis vulnerary) and a smattering of purple Common Vetch (Vicia saliva) in the grassier areas.

All in all, this short session showed that there is an abundance of wildlife just down the road from Raheny, and this doesn’t include Saint Annes Park which is another hotbed of wildlife activity. North Bull Island is a great example of a nature reserve within spitting distance of a city and it’s proof, if indeed proof was ever needed, that you don’t have to travel far to find wildlife. Sometimes all you need to do is slow down, open your eyes and just see what unfolds around you.

North Bull Island or ‘Dollyer’ as it’s known to most Dubliners is a sand island that came into being due to construction of the North Bull Wall in the early 1800’s., starting of life as a sandbar It is a haven for wildlife, with the mudflats at the back of the island being of international importance for birdlife. As such it became a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1981.

Hello

Blogging is the way forward, or so I have been told, so here I am. I have unleashed myself on the world with a blog which should get filled with the weekly ramblings of a photographer with lots of time on his hands. Actually, in truth, I’ve started this as a way of de-stressing myself from the extraordinarily stressful job of renovating our house. Everything I own is covered in dust, cement, sawdust, plaster – you name it, it just goes on and on and my head is at breaking point. What better way of shedding the stresses of life than writing about photography and the subjects I photograph and sharing it with the world?

I’m primarily a wildlife and nature photographer with a very healthy interest in photographing horse racing as well. My work is mainly based in Dublin, Ireland as that is where I’m from and live. Dublin is a lovely city when you view it from the perspective I do. We may be in the middle of a recession and financial crisis but that doesn’t take away from the fact that we have some wonderful scenery and wildlife in our fair city. I mean, over 6 million people visit Ireland annually and most of them come through Dublin. Of course, those stats were before the recession, and they’re probably coming for the Guinness and not the Molly Malone statue, but still they come and their reward is a beautiful city with many natural highlights. Through this blog and my website I hope to show you those highlights.

If there's one thing I love, it's insects, and there will be plenty on show here through the summer. People can walk through a field, a grassy verge or even their back garden and be completely unaware of the invertebrate metropolis right under their feet. I shall be covering topics that cover all aspects of wildlife photography and not just the subjects of the photos.

I'll see you all soon.