Blue

It being the last day of January, and just about 10°C, I decided that it might be worth having a little hunt around the garden for invertebrates. I didn't expect to find much, and I didn't, but the bug season will be kicking off any time now, and I want to be ready for it when it does.

This isn't the best photo I've ever taken of a pair of Oxystoma pomonae seed weevils in their winter huddling position, but in my defence the light was dire and there was a strong gusty wind blowing. In the end I had to steady the twig against the edge of the macro's lens hood to keep enough of a relationship between weevils and lens for the camera to hold focus on them. This project would definitely have been a lot easier if I'd used the flash, but for emotional reasons I wanted an available light shot. I'm projecting myself forward into spring, even if spring isn't yet quite ready to receive me.

In other news, today's little bug safari provided the first opportunity I've had to try out the macro binoculars R gave me for my birthday last month, and I was amazed at how close they can focus, and how easy they make it to scan an area for small creatures. They're going to be a really useful tool in the summer, and I'm already looking forward to taking them out on dragon hunts.