Alien Invaders!...

They hide amongst us, still, and unnoticed...

Insidiously multiplying, their alien pods spreading their seed. Soon the brook is obscured by their masses, obliterating all other plants in their way.

The honeybees tend their blooms, unaware of their part in this alien invasion. The Himalayan Balsam seducing them with its pretty pretty flowers. Pollen on the bees back stains them white with the mark of the collaborator.

The snails are on our side, eating as much as they can, but can so few make a difference against so many?



How could the other plants compete against such a weapon of mass dispersion? Even at x8 slower the explosive pods burst in the blink of an eye.



Slowed x16, their ballistic power is apparent, with a range of several metres.



Alien technology developed over millenniums have overpowered the innocent inhabitants of the humble British waterways. (slowed x33)

The river banks are littered with the shrapnel of this silently raging war. "Your country(side) needs you"... Stop the alien invasion!

'Come Fly with me...'

Judging from the front of my car, there's a distinct lack of insects this year. Normally the windscreen would be plastered with corpses after a high speed run. Maybe it was the harsh winter we had.

There are some exceptions to this lack of population. Aphids have done well, and also Hoverflies. (Scaeva Pyrastri)

I love these little guys. Lovely, harmless critters, that don't sting or bite, even though they pretend to be wasps and bees.

There's an incredible number of varieties, and identifying the subtle differences between them has proved difficult.



My favourite thing about them, are their flying skills. You can really appreciate the accuracy of their hovering with some high speed video shots...



Slowed down x8, their wings are still a blur.



Bumble bees are renowned for their fast wing beat (120-250 beats per second). I had to shoot this high speed video at 1000 frames per second (slowed x33) in order to capture the wing movement, and yet Hoverflies are even faster, with a wingbeat of 150-300 beats per second!

They are beautiful insects if given a second look.

Some pretend to be solitary wasps like this Episyrphus Balteatus. The giveaway is the way the hold their wings at rest. Hoverflies hold them straight out, while real wasps tuck them along their body. Wasps operate in a tight colony and need to move alongside others without clashing wings.

This Hoverfly is often called a Dronefly (Eristalis Tenax) because it mimics a drone Honey bee.

I think they look kind of cute closeup with their fluffy 'trunk'.




It is the season to go Hoverfly watching... coming to a flower near you!

Lily Pads and Paddles...

Some stretches of water just ask to be paddled. A raft of waterlilies entice you under the cast iron bridge, a gateway to be explored. The Anglesey Branch Canal links the large lake at Chasewater (used for sailing and water skying) to the Wryley and Essington.

This was once a polluted, industrial transport canal surrounded by coal mines. Intriguing bits of brickwork, heavy metal fixings, and rusted chutes to load the barges with coal still remain, but are now softened by nature.

The lake at Chasewater is fed by springs. It's this water that feeds the canal and has purged it of pollutants. The lack of narrowboat traffic on this stretch means that the water is lovely and clear.



Huge Carp patrol the banks of weed, although they quickly disappeared as soon as I got my camera into the water... typical.

The canal terminates in a large basin. The shallow banks make it easy to haul up and find a grassy knoll on which to eat your sandwiches.

On the return trip the water lilies made excellent little tables to put your coffee cup down onto.

It may at first seem like a clever idea to pop your car keys on one to take a silly photo, but when your kayak drifts away, you quickly realise what an idiot you are. Every time I tried to paddle back to retrieve them the wake from my boat threatened to sink the lily pad. Oh dear!

Never mind, I have a cunning plan...

Cars in the Park...

Lichfield city held a car show at the weekend, and as a bonus, this year it was free!
There were acres of static car displays, ranging from this humble little car for doing the shopping....


... to a more exotic ex-rally Ford RS 200 (drool)



Fancy, shiny cars parked in rows are all well and good, but this sort of machinery is best experienced in action. To my glee, there was an arena set aside for some petrol burning, larking about.


There was a good variety of off-roaders. This was one of the specialist 4x4s. Four wheel steering and full active hydraulic suspension, meant there wasn't much that could trip it up.


"Did you feel a bump dear?"... "Yes, I think we may have run over the bungalow again."





The new speed bumps put in by the council didn't seem to have any effect.



My favourites were the mega fast 'Tomcat' style machines... how fast???!!!!



The roar of some of the V8 engines was fantastic.







Drivers should stay alert to other road users at all times, and not be distracted by their passengers...



Seeing a Ford Focus jump this high over a ramp is impressive, but a common weekly spectacle at the local Sainsburys car park come Saturday night as anxious drivers hit the speed bumps trying to beat closing time on the 'beer run'...

Free as a Bird...

With the summer in full flow, and the weather being so pleasant of late, it's been a good season for baby birds. On a sunny patch of grass by the woods I watched a young Magpie being fed by its parent.

"Feed me, feed me!"...

"More, more...."

They flew off towards the stream, cackling and squawking. The smaller birds wisely kept their distance from the dangerous duo... except one.

Oblivious to any threat, this little chap just sauntered about without a care in the world. She wasn't going to survive out in the wilds for long with such a reckless disregard for danger. There were Magpies, Crows, dogs, cats, foxes, as well as Sparrowhawks all out and about looking for an easy snack.

After a bit of a chat, Budgie and I decided that it would be probably for the best if she came home with me.

She's a pretty bird even though it does look like she's only got one leg. I can assure you that there are actually two!

Look, two legs... damn! How difficult should it be to prove a budgie has two legs?!!!

Right, there we are... two legs.

She's settled in fine. Happy to sit on my hand, and poo in my cup of tea while I'm not looking. We watch the Magpies through the window together, a much safer option.



I've even trained her to fly in slow motion!

Fox Tales... Nap Time.

She may try and look mean, with her best "I'm a big bad wolf stare", but really she's a softy.

It's just an act to keep the cubs in line, now that they're getting to that 'boisterous' stage.

Sometimes they're very cheeky, snatching food from right under her nose. If there is something you want to avoid, it is getting between a fox and it's food, I have the bite marks to prove it!

Out of the two remaining cubs, this is the most confident one, always getting into trouble. He's wet from playing 'catch the moth reflections' in the puddle.

A bit of running around through the tall grass soon left him dry and fluffy again.

His sibling is a little smaller, but can hold its own in a squabble over nosh.

When they were young there was a third cub, but nature doesn't favour all, and now there are just the two of them. It was a cold, hard winter, and foxes vary their litter size according to conditions, it seems even three was too many.



Once the cubs had had their fill of food, they went off to practice their hunting skills by terrorising the beetles attempting to make the already perilous journey across the desert of the country lane.

There's nothing like sitting on the warm tarmac under the stars, sharing a few raisins with a friend.

A combination of tiredness bought on by the incessant attentions of the cubs, and the brightness of the camera flash, soon caused sleepy eyes to appear...

... and 'nap time' quickly followed.

Damsel(fly) in Distress...

Even though I had a list of chores that needed doing, it was far too warm and muggy to do much. I elected to go kayaking instead.

I took my homemade underwater camera housing, but the water was murky, churned up by the passing narrowboats.

At the margins of the water, amongst the reeds and weeds it was a little clearer, but the fish I had intended to film had been spooked by boat propellers.

After a few miles of paddling I stopped for a snack. The damselflies were busy doing what damselflies do. These 'Large Red Damselflies' (Pyrrhosoma Nymphula) were quite striking with their bright red eyes. Although they're called 'large reds' they're actually very small, much smaller than the more common blue or green specimens.

This tiny chappess laying eggs on a twig is one of the smaller species (Ischnura Elegans).

In my eagerness to get a closer photo I scared the poor thing and it hastily took flight...

...straight into a spiders web. The spider was all of a fluster. It really wasn't sure whether it wanted this flying predator tangled in its trap, and quickly hid behind a leaf.

Carefully, I teased the damselfly free and let it perch on my finger.

It gave itself a good preening and carried out a few pre-flight checks.

It was a cute little thing. With a cock of its head as if to say 'thanks', or perhaps 'thanks for nothing', it was off, skimming the water, and dancing with its friends.

It was time for me to be off too. Homeward bound on my mirrored carriageway...