A drab brown butterfly rests on a tree trunk, its jagged outline providing a perfect camouflage against the moss, twigs and broken branches of the tree. The underside of this butterfly, a Camberwell beauty (Nymphalis antiopa), looks like the bark itself, dark brown and wrinkled, almost like a piece of charred wood (below). An alien from…
If like me, you like wandering around sand dunes – perhaps whilst you are on holiday by the seaside – keep an eye out for sand wasps. In particular, digger wasps like this which make nests in the sand for their young to develop in. The species shown here (Bembix rostrata) is only found in the…
I often find, when I take a set of photographs, that I am initially disappointed with the results. The reason being that one has such great expectations regarding the results, sometimes even imagining whilst you are taking the photographs, that they will be amazing! The subject, the light, the whole experience seems to produce a…
Ray Cannon's nature notes 