Fly antics

A very early, first light safari today. The roads seemed unusually damp, a heavy dew I hoped, but was disappointed to find the ground very soggy, which meant heavy rain in the night. The muddy conditions are a nightmare in flip-flops. First, the mud cakes up the soles until you are very soon wearing fashionable platform flip-flops. Secondly, once caked, they afford very little grip.

Thirdly and the final straw, as you brush through the grass and weeds, the top surface and your feet get wet, the slightest slope and you are slipping and sliding inside the floppies which in turn are sliding and slipping in the mud, a bit like wearing soap shoes on an ice rink. So after about five minutes I was native. This was not going to be a long session and already I was planning a second safari later in the morning.

After processing the images, I did have enough material for a blip, but I also made a startling discovery, dragonflies have hairy wings! So I went back to try and capture the revelation in a better image, but it wasn't to be. I looked back through my collection of dragonfly shots and found a great image that demonstrates the hairs, so now at least I know how to capture the hairs and will be attempting to do so over the next few days.

Also on my second visit, I found these two flies. At first sight, as it flopped to the ground, I thought I had found one huge fly. As I got closer, I thought a robber fly with a meal. Once in my lens, I saw that they were the same species, but never did work out what they were doing. Obviously some form of evolutionary function or other is served, but I thought they made a fine blip.

Congratulations to ArtistAnnie And SteinJ on achieving staff picks this week, well done.

Dave