Scorpion Fly

I went down to the local nature reserve after dropping my daughter off at work this morning. It was beautiful. No one else on the walk at all, and the only sound was birds singing. The sun was picking out the yellow of the buttercups which contrasted with the Ransoms and other flowers were bursting out all round the walk.

There were a few birds around, but they didn't show themselves clearly. There was a family of ducks on the other side of the river, but too far away for a decent shot of the ducklings. I concentrated on flowers, and was pleased with some of the shops, but chose this picture of the scorpion fly as it's a bit unusual.

The red part on the tail, when seen from the side, looks like a scorpion sting. It's actually only found on the males and are part of their sexual organs. As far as I know they don't sting or bite!

The other thing I was trying was getting pictures of swallows in flight. The autofocus had a hard time of it and only really worked against the sky, so I bravely switched it off and tried manual focus. It was pretty tricky, and my success rate was small, but I did get one or two almost in focus! Maybe I'll blip one next time I have a go.

Hope everyone has had weather as good as we have had today - doesn't look too promising down here tomorrow.