Arty farty.

There are a lot of ultra macro images on the internet these days, usually close ups of insect "faces". They are amazing images. Some, but not all, take a lot of time to produce, stacked images (lots of images combined to obtain huge depth of field), although many Olympus cameras will stack images internally, and can be set up with a pile of options. My second hand EM5s have this capability, if a tad more limited than say an OM1. The images below are single shots though, two were taken at night with the kit flash gun. Colours of the insect world.

Grey Dagger, caterpillar.

Nicrophorus investigator, and passenger.

The Herald.

The colours are natural, and it's the lower two images taken with flash at night, the Grey Dagger was a daytime image, the glossy reflection a natural element of the caterpillar's epidermis.

I might do a bit more of this in the future as I like the images; patterns, colours and textures of the natural world.

A couple of moth dissections recently have unravelled species aggregates. The Ear sp (Amphipoea) from VC90, Angus, proved to be Crinan Ear, Amphipoea crinanensis.

Crinan Ear (Amphipoea crinanensis), male.

 Of the four species this is the easiest to figure out from a dissection.

Not quite such an easy dissection, or to figure out was Agonopterix heracliana. Theoretically I've seen Agonopterix ciliella here, I dissected the hind wing out in the past and it showed the four or five dark lines in the cilia. However, there is some contention about that criteria not being reliable. The dissection of the genitalia is reasonably clear. But, in addition, this moth did not show more than a line or two in the hind wing cilia.

Agonopterix heracliana.

Male genitalia Agonopterix heracliana.

Agonopterix heracliana, stacked image, one, maybe two dark lines in the cilia of the hind wing.

Here's the Grey Dagger cat in all its glory, something a bit more straightforward to identify.

Enjoying the roses on the front of the house.

Birding has been quiet until yesterday and today. We went out to Yesnaby yesterday, the weather was lovely and we were just ambling along, down to the wee burn and the bay, out the other side and an unmistakable bird flew right by us.

Great Spotted Woodpecker.

Well, that was unexpected.

Today, I looked at the What'sApp after I'd dug the tatties out and fettled the bed. Hmmm, Hoopoe at Stromness golf course. Louise and the hound were up for it, so off we went.

We couldn't find the bird initially, and we headed back up the hill towards the garden where it had been spending its afternoons. Three birders were up there already, and as we watched the bird flew straight towards us. Hidden behind a convenient stone dyke we had excellent views, Louise was impressed.

Hoopoe.

At the cafe enjoying a celebratory coffee and sandwich I amused myself baiting and photographing the House Spugs, they duly obliged.

House Sparrow, female, top; male, lower image.

We wandered back down to Warbeth beach for some clouds.