Colourful insects & flowers in close up

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A couple of days ago I took a trip to Ouse Fen, an RSPB run nature reserve, in the hope of getting some shots of the abundant bird life that takes up residence there this time of year. It is home to a multitude of geese, ducks, swans, gulls, coots, terns, grebes and cormorants, along with a few herons. Some of which have travelled for thousands of miles to breed on its lakeland islands.

Unfortunately, even though it’s easy enough to get pretty close to the colonies, I just didn’t have the capabilities with the lenses I own, to really get close enough for any meaningful images. So after endless whirling around, trying to follow the birds as they flew overhead, and attempting to catch the terns as they speared into the water on the hunt for fish, I decided that I was wasting my time, and the birds could go shove it

Instead I concentrated on the local insect life, as there were a plentitude of wild flowers about, which were attracting an abundance of butterflies and other arthropods, so I aimed my camera at the ground instead and got a few shots of these colourful citizens of the shrubbery…

A small tortoiseshell butterfly stands out against the sunny flowers.

A common blue damselfly clings to some grass.

A group of cinnabar moth caterpillars having some lunch. The hairy spines are venomous and can cause quite
the rash.

Possibly a buff tailed bumblebee, but I'm not entirely sure about that.

A collection of meadow brown butterflies supping on nectar.

A ringlet butterfly.

Common blue damselfly raises its tail.

Bumblebee on an expedition to find nectar.

Another shot of a small tortoiseshell butterfly showing off its splendour.

Cinnabar moth caterpillars doing what they do.

Another meadow brown at repast.

Ringlet butterfly with a couple of soldier beetles scampering about the ragwort flowers.

Close up of an electric blue damselfly resting on some grass.

A good view of this meadow brown sipping at the flower nectar.

A meadow brown with open wings. As you can tell, there were a lot of meadow browns about.

A close up of a feather that caught my eye.

And finally, here's one of a black-headed gull for good measure.