There are two potted oak trees in my garden that over time have been ravaged from attacks by aphids, sawfly – not to mention a host of  infections. My oaks have defiantly and stoically survived whatever adversity has thrown at... Read More

A warm winter is a final opportunity for insects to soak up the sun before the first frosts arrive and winter dormancy sets-in. So it is that the shield bugs are drawn to the sunniest spots. Americans refer to them... Read More

Kenfig Nature Reserve in South Wales is one of my favourite places to watch dragonflies and is one of Wale’s top sand-dune reserves attracting special plants, birds and insects that depend on this type of coastal habitat for their survival.... Read More

Back in June, I was fortunate enough to have caught a glimpse of an Elephant Hawk Moth in my back garden. It was around midnight and its buzzing wings brushed passed my head after feeding on the honeysuckle. For an... Read More

In this post I’m going to review my recently acquired Zeiss macro Exolens. The Exolense Pro system of lenses for iPhone 6/7 uses Zeiss optics inside beautifully engineered metal bodies. There were three lenses in the system comprising of a... Read More

At last, I captured my first Hawk-moth in moth trap this month. Hawk-moths are impressive medium to large moths, often strikingly coloured, and include the biggest moths in Britain in terms of wingspan and body size. They are known as... Read More

The results of the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme showed worrying declines for many species, including the Grizzled Skipper, which had its worst ever year (down 54% since 1976). It was therefore with some sense of apprehension that I set out... Read More

Remembering my elementary school art lessons, I fondly recall the use of the complementary colours, such as blue and orange. Such colour theory taught me that complementary colours were found by looking at the circumference of the colour wheel and... Read More

While looking for a bellows on EBay I came across this strange Heath Robinson like contraption that had me both puzzled and fascinated. On closer inspection, it looked like two bellows had ingeniously been fitted together to form one huge... Read More

In my last post I reviewed the Yongnuo YN24EX twin flash and found that its build quality and features pleasantly exceeded my expectations. However, any flash used for macro will need to be diffused appropriately in order to avoid blown... Read More