Warren Baker, The Pittswood Birder, and i made our way to Westbere Lakes in Kent having spent a few hours at Stodmarsh, the highlight there being a flyover Osprey. Our main reason for visiting Westbere was to hopefully see a Scarce Chaser dragonfly something that would be a first for both of us. More of that in the next post. We hadn't been there too long when Warren called me over not far from an area where i had had good numbers of Banded Demoiselles last summer on my only previous visit to this site. He was frantically waving so i rushed over not having a chance to swop to my other camera with the 100mm macro lens already set up and ready to go but with my 300mm lens. A Hairy Dragonfly was munching away on a Banded Demoiselle and feelings of excitement, shock, horror and sadness all seemed to whirr through my mind at the same time.
As mentioned at the begining the Demoiselles wings came off as the Hairy chomped merrily on. Eventually all that wat left was the abdomen which disappeared like we would suck in that last strand of spaghetti that was poking out ! An incredible sight to witness.
Yes i know i could have done with more dof but i hadn't taken a "macro" image for some 6 months, that's my excuse anyway. For some more, and better, images of this amazing wildlife experience check out Warrens images on his blog HERE
Great sequence John, and captured well enough. You may remember I was lucky enough to witness a similar sight a couple of years back, and it's the sound of crunching which still haunts me rather than the visual 'feast'. I could imagine the disappearing abdomen was a bit like someone dispatching a stick of celery. IMHO depth of field is perfect, focus is on the action, anything else would be a distraction.
ReplyDeleteSome decent shots there John. Look forward to reading your Scarce Chaser story, even though I was there ! :-) cheers for the link mate.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the positive comments Alan. Could have done with a few more variations in focus. Better next time hopefully. Didn't get close enough to hear any crunching thankfully as i was using 300mm lens.
ReplyDeleteCheers Alan.
ReplyDeleteNot much of a story to tell on the Scarce Chaser front. Just a few images.
Hope the Wales trip is going well.