Martyn Pitt

If you approach them carefully without any sudden movement you can get pretty close, it helps that I am using either a 300mm or 200-400mm lens which have 5 feet or 6 feet minimum focus distance, this lets me keep just far enough away from the insect to avoid spooking it.

Steve, yonks ago you posted one sideways on, I asked if you had taken it lying down, or if you had fallen over ... and as being six foot nothing ... in my dreams Anyway, have a couple of Southern Hawkers

I reckon he fell over again Russell ... it's happened before

Same way that the youngster knows how to fly close to 2000 miles home in the Autumn, pure instinct I would imagine. The adults will only take over a nest of another bird if they can imitate the host birds egg, my question is how the host bird does not know it's not their own youngster once it gets over twice their size. The difference is obvious in this image (unfortunately the Warbler is out of focus due to the limited depth of field, I was struggling to find a place I could see between the leaves and branches).

A Large Skipper ponders ...

Cheers you two ... apparently it has been well over 10 years since Cuckoos bred at Belvide, we think that we may have three juveniles this year, which is good news as Cuckoo numbers had been declining. A couple more shots of it

Managed to see a fledgling Cuckoo this morning, being fed by a couple of Reed Warblers ... it was calling for food constantly, I should think that the Reed Warblers were struggling to keep up with the demand Here it is demanding food You can see one of the Reed Warblers almost in the Cuckoo's mouth in this shot

Steve what do you mean ... too far away ... WoodButcher posted a shot of the Sun and that's bloody miles away

A male Black Tailed Skimmer

This is an Emperor Dragonfly a little farther away than I would have liked but them's the breaks, which gave me quite a challenge to actually get a shot of it in flight

As the warm weather appears so do the Dragons ... A female Ruddy Darter takes a rest

I have known Paul over 20 years, shared a dance floor with him many a time, great guy, I was shocked to hear the sad news. Deepest sympathy and condolences to the lovely Carole RIP Paul Martyn & Carol xxx

A Black Necked Grebe paid us a visit, a stunning little bird ]

The largest member of the Gull family is the Greater Black Back, an enormous bird, this is a youngster, a 2nd summer bird

A Coot feeding it's couple of days old chick Bless the little cute thing ... a face only a mother could love

It does indeed Mark... no way are the trousers baggy enough

I thought this made a rather calming image

Reed Warblers have been active, collecting nesting material

A Common Tern with a snack .... there were that many small fish in the reservoir feeder stream where they were catching these, I could have dived in and caught one in my mouth

Here you are Dave a Grasshopper Warbler (from 2011) ... it was great to watch it singing, it's whole body trembled when it warbled its mechanical sounding call.

Yes Dave ... we get the odd one or two at the reserve, one of the scarcer visitors though, I got some cracking shots of one a couple of years back, I will stick it up if I can find it

New in from Africa ... also in pretty good voice, a Reed Warbler

Not personally Steve ... there has been a couple of sightings at Belvide last week, I thought I saw one yesterday in flight, but it was only a fleeting glimpse at distance, and the little bugger had disappeared before I could get on it with the bins ... mainly because I had a sandwich in my one hand . I am either eating, or Carol rings me just when something decent turns up

A Goldcrest on the pull ... singing it's little heart out

It would have been bought in the mid seventies Pete, certainly not a recent (after 1992) purchase. I shall have to dig it out and have a closer look.