Re: Today in pictures
 

That's interesting about the telephone boxes... the church in Skipton, next to the castle, has one of those brass eagle lecturns.

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I think a lot of churches have Brass eagle lecterns.
And most of them shine impressively.....courtesy or the ladies of the church....well usually.

Yes, it is interesting about the white(or maybe they are more cream than white) public phone boxes.
I only know this fact because my brother lived in Hull for a number of years and he said that they never paid the phone bill to the GPO(as it was then) but to the council....and if my memory serves me right....I think it was a good bit cheaper too.

As for these two phone boxes....they had no phones in them....they are empty...but they serve to remind the people of the past....and I like them.(I know, I am easily pleased)

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In my previous life as a tanker driver I was based in Kingston on Hull for a dozen years.
The City had its own telephone system and exchange.
They residents had free calls between others on the system but paid for calls which were routed to other parts of the Country. The phone boxes were white back then, as in your photo.
The City is called Kingston and sits across the river Hull which at times is just a muddy creek. Hence. “Kingston on Hull”
It’s 35 years since I was last there so I’ve no idea if the same telephone system survived.
The City is on the banks of the river Humber.

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That shoud read "Kingston upon Hull"

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two from today...

Water Lilies at Whalley Abbey, you don't have to travel far to find sommat interesting to photograph....

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Now, Ryewolf.....THAT does float my boat.
A beautiful picture...Composition is spot on.....the bar of light just concentrates the eye.
Love it, love it, love it!

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Thanks Margaret, I was actually cursing that bar of light at the time, until I got home a saw it on the big screen in a letterbox crop....

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You would have been hard pressed to 'engineer' a shot like that.
The karma of photography dropped that gift on you.
The more I look at it, the more I like it.

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The Singing Jay...

He was having a little sing, first time I've heard one make a noise, I did a bit of a Google for Jay sounds, though none sounded like what I'd heard, but apparently they also mimic other bird noises. The sound I heard was closer to wood pigeons cooing.

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B is for Bat. Taken today at Whalley at 16:30 in the afternoon...

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Maybe just had a night on the tiles?

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Yesterday I took a coach trip to the City of Durham.
What a delight it was...and we had a fine day for it. No rain...a bit overcast at times, but warm and for a large part of the day sunny.
Here are my pictures of my day
1) Heron sculpture on the banks of the River Wear
2) a floral Bishops Mitre in front of St Nicholas Church in the market square
3) a carving of the Bishop(I think)
4) statue of Neptune in the Market Square.
5) a line of Skiffs on the banks of the Wear...fancy a row?
6) One of the steep streets in the city
7) Five pints please(me trying to be arty farty)
8) the Cathedral through the trees.
9) St Nicholas' Church seen from across the market square
10) the steep hill up to the cathedral

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Picture number 3 is in fact St Nicholas (note to self...research first...post after).

There will be more from this visit tomorrow and there are a further ten pics on my blog

http://www.accringtonweb.com/forum/b...g-journey.html

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Female Kingfisher from yesterday on the River Calder at Whalley, pity her favourite perches are so far away...

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Those shots are perfect.
Love them.

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Some from yesterday:

1: Snipe Fly - possibly Chrysopilus cristatus
2-3: A type of Ichneumon wasp
4: Comma Butterfly

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Ryewolf, I had never heard of Ichneumon Wasps before.....so I have learned something from looking at your pictures.
The leaves are lovely....so much detail. :)
I am sure you know where I am coming from.
Yes...the 'like' is for your obvious skill....and bravery:D

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The Ichneumonidae are a solitary parasitic member of the wasp family and have ovipositors instead of stingers, they use their ovipositors to lay eggs on or in the body of their prey, and the eggs hatch into carnivorous larvae that eat and kill the host.

I think all the leaves were nettles.

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Yes....on seeing the name I looked up about these insects (over the years I have found that if you have to search for information about something, you usually remember it....so a good way to learn things) but thank you for the information.
As for the leaves....I was being abit(pardon the pun) 'fly'....a bit naughty....because you already know that insects do not appeal greatly to me....but your pictures still need to be applauded for the detail.....and I am sure there are people out there that would love them.

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I like taking photographs, so I tend to spend my spare time photographing anything that walks, crawls or flies and anything else that happens to be in front of my camera. These were taken at the Heysham Viking festival on Sunday....

1: this guy was making bowls using an axe to make the blank, then wood turning using a springpole lathe.
2: Weaving something....
3: Making stuff out of leather....
4: Repairing hand made chain mail...

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Yes...I am much the same...and I do not mind people being in my shots...it gives the picture life.
Oh and Ryewolf.....I thought of you on sunday....I found a very large bee in my backyard...it looked a bit tired and distressed...so i took some sugar water out for it.
I even picked it up(OK...still cowardly - gently lifted it with my fish slice).

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Not even a damp and dreary day like today stopped me from going out with my camera.... There's no such thing as a bad day for photography but some days are better than others....

There should have been 2 steam engines running but 80080 was cancelled, so D1501 was running in it's place.

1. City of Wells at Irwell Vale
2. Diesel D5054 'Phil Southern' departing Rawtenstall
3. Diesel D1501 departing Rawtenstall

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One of my favourite spots for evening photography is on Pendle Hill

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Cinnabar Moth Caterpillars: Another load off to their new home, as the little beggars have eaten all the ragwort... I did have around 15-20 plants growing in my yard, after a quick count there's at least 95 here. These were the second lot I collected and moved off to a new home with lots of ragwort. Ragwort itself is posionous and because the caterpillars eat it they also become posionous, same with the moth, hopefully these will manage to pupate and will become moths next year.

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Brilliant shots, Ryewolf.

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The Painted Lady's are here, these butterflies come all the way from Africa for the summer then fly back again...

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Thanks, just taking advantage of the natural splendor of summer evenings.

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How do you know this are they taged

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It's been well studied, the ones that return to Africa after arriving in the UK aren't the same ones that set out back and as many as 6 generations have passed.

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-49210010
Just read the above!

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Saturdays Mini Beast Safari...

One of the problems with macro is not just finding your subjects but identifying them afterwards...

1. Red Solider Beetle - at least I know what this one is...
2. Tiny Fly... on a similar plant as the solider beetle....
3. Teeny Tiny Fly, it was so small it was hard to see with the naked eye.... Again on a plant like the others...
4. Hoverfly - this one had me confused as it looked like a wasp, but on a large screen you can see it's proboscis..
5. It's a moth on a thistle head - that's all I know....
6. A Spider....
7. Mystery Bug, my instincts tell me this isn't the adult....

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Welll, Ryewolf....those last shots of yours are amazing.
The detail you have captured is the kind of thing you would see in textbooks.....but they still made me go all....ooh ah, let me get away....so not cured of the insect thing....yet.

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There were three of these butterflies resting on my newly washed sheets on Friday and I (wrongly) thought they were Red Admirals....but then the only butterflies I can identify are Cabbage Whites and Red Admirals.....and seemingly I can now only identify Cabbage whites(because I thought the Painted Ladies were Red Admirals)
Just as an aside....are males Painted Gentlemen?.....no, I know they aren't.
Can you tell males from females...and how?

I will away now and consult Google.

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They do look very much like Red Admirals, don't worry I wrongly identified them at first.


No idea how you tell the males from females, some butterflies do have distinct differences between the sexes, Orange Tips for example only the male has the orange tip on it's wing, the females look very similar to small whites or green veined whites when they have the wings open, however the undersides of the their wings are completely different.

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ah well now after my research, I can tell you that the males have a thinner abdomen than the females and that they have a circle on the underside of the hind wing.
You can always come to accyweb and learn something.

If something poses a question in my mind I have to look for the answer.

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Thanks Margaret, a lot of practice and the right equipment, plus a willingness to get up close and personal with your subject. In most of these the front of my camera was between 10-15cm from my subject.

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If it were not for your pictures I would NEVER get to see these insects.....I would be half a mile away puffing and panting.

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:) You've probably walked past insects like this every day of your life and never noticed them. Unless you take the time to search for them and photograph them you wouldn't see them like this except for under a microscope.

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Yes you are right, but I would not really go looking for them...so your pictures are an education....and I suppose if you can see the beauty in them....I just can't...even though they are wonders of nature and essential for the pollination of plants.

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A jay from today, a member of the corvid family (along with Jackdaws, Magpies, Crows and Ravens), they're probably the most secretive and shy birds of all corvids...

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There are some of these birds close to the Motorway in Clayton.
I have seen them but never knew they were Jays.

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They are quite striking and colourful of all the corvids.

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I thought they were some kind of pigeon...you know, a sort of upper class version.....although now having taken more notice, I can see they are not pigeons.

As I say...come to Accyweb and learn.

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Todays Mini Beast Safari

1. Green Shieldbug - also known as stink bugs...
2. Hoverfly
3. Lacewing Larva - it's very easy to overlook these as they disguise themselves as debris, but if you look closer you can see it has legs and has viscous looking mouthparts, but they are ferocious predators...

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Some sunsets and a moonrise taken at the Jubilee Tower on the hills above Heysham and Lancaster looking across Morecambe Bay.

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Oh Yesssss!
Now those are my kind of pictures. I love them alll.....I cannot choose a favourite.
I would happily have one of those on my wall.
Brilliant.

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Today I went on a ride out to Chester.(With Moving People)
It was not a particularly good day for taking pics(I really don't like my cameras being exposed to rain).....I thought that my camera would stay inside its padded case, but I DID take some pics.....can't post them tonight, they need to be resized.
Will post some tomorrow.

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Thanks Margaret

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Here are some pictures from our very damp trip to Chester yesterday.
Thankfully it does not rain inside the Cathedral...so if ecclesiastical architecture does not float your baot...it's just too bad.....you will have to be satisfied with coffee and a couple of slices of cake(very fine it was too)

1) an ornate ceiling boss(got a crick in my neck capturing these.)
2) Stained Glass window.
3) another ceiling boss.
4) Mary and the child
5)Detail on the richly decorated ceiling.
6) The Cathedra. To be a Cathedral, there has to be a throne for the Bishop...this is it.
7) the vastness of the Cathedral
8) Haven't a clue who these figures represent...but we have affectionately termed them 'Art, Bart and Fargo.
9) Yum...afternoon tea(coffee too)
10) The altar in the cathedral.

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He looks like he’s signalling that he’s about to turn left!

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Thanks for posting the pictures Maragret. I think we have the same taste in cake. That's similar to the one I had when I visited the Cathereral.
At least you got somewhere dry to take photographs. As you know I spent all day at the Chester Zoo and due to the constant rain I didn't take my camera out of the bag, shame really. Just before the coach came for us the rain ceased and I quickly nipped back to grab a shot of the elephants, guess what? they had all gone inside. Beter luck next time.

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Well Russell, it was great to meet you and Marlene.....Sorry your day at the Zoo was a bit of a let down...just means that you have to make a return trip.

Glad you liked my pictures...especially the cake(it was delicious)

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Here are a few more from our trip to Chester.
It did stop raining for a little while so we went down to the River Dee...intent on a boat trip....but we had just missed the boat.

There was something going on on the other side of the river...Firemen in an inflatable boat seemed to be searching, but they might just have been on a practice...did not see t hem find anything.

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The pictures are:-
1) Shrine of St Werburgh....the Cathedral is dedicated to this saint.
2) One of the intricate mosaic panels at the entrance to the Cathedral.
3) Three Men and a boat...firemen...don't know what was going on.
4) The quayside.
5) a Brass panel near the Shrine of St Werburgh.
6) A caffeine boost.
7) Sid and Cyril...the Seagulls.
8) one of the baots that does river cruises...except this was going nowhere.
9) A close up of one of the firemen(he looks barely a boy to me).
10) Tow boats resting downstream.

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These are pictures of the lego model they were building in Chester Cathederal that we spoke about Margaret. They were taken in March this year, although it says 2018 on the picture, Did you say it is finished now?

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Oh....I am not sure. there seemed to be a lot more to it than is in your picture.
I did not take a picture of it....but I wish I had done now, then it would have been easy to compare it.
I will seek out info and get back to you on that.

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https://chestercathedral.com/shop/lego-model/

It looks like it is completed as you can no longer buy bricks.

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Going off your link Margaret I think it's just models of the organ they were selling which is now sold out. The big model of the Cathedral is a about 7 foot by 5 foot and I was told in march it would take another three years to complete.
The public are invited to buy a brick for a pound and are shown where to place it on a module. As each module is completed the staff place it in the correct position on the part built model.
If you look at the second photograph your will see two little model men stood on the wall half way up. they are where the current module will be placed and then another module started for somewhere else.

We paid for four bricks each which goes towards the upkeep of the Catherdal.

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Oh, did not realise it was just for the organ....the model did look big.
We did not buy bricks but I made a bank note contribution....I always do this and consider it a fair cost for being able to take pictures....it is my photographic licence if you like.
I get so much pleasure from taking pictures and then cropping or resizing them when I get back home....it is worth it.

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Yes, I see it now Russell.
Will have to go again just to check on the progress and take pictures this time.
I think there is another trip later on in the year....maybe for the Christmas markets.
Will get myself on that trip....3rd of December.
Should see some progress by then.

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Some from today... Dragonflies

1. Female Common Darter
2. 3. Male Common Darter

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Again, lovely sharp detail.
Well shot!

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Thanks Margaret

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I went to Chester Zoo today, I've now got 650 images to look through..... taken over 8 hours .....

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Well, that is something for us to look forward to Ryewolf....and it might make up for Russell(Gremlin) missing out because of the rain.
I would guess it was a much better day than it was on Wednesday.

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Yes, it was a really nice pleasant day, it wasn't too hot...... and only started getting a bit like it might rain at about 17:20, by which time I'd been there for 8 hours.


I went before in June, it wasn't until I got home and looked at the Zoo map that I realised I'd missed huge chunks from the zoo. Plus this time I got to see the Jaguars, Cheetahs and Tigers.


It's only the second time I've been, it's such a big zoo that if you want to see everything you do need at least a couple of days...


The Aardvarks were still asleep though!!!!

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I haven't been to the zoo for about 13 years.
Maybe next time we go to Chester we will get off the coach at the zoo.

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Sumartran Tiger

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A few pics & a rather shaky video from RAF Coningsby

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4JYRmPv8zc

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More Big Cats from Chester Zoo

1. Jaguar
2. Lion
3. Sumartran Tiger
4-6. Cheetah

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I like cats....I like big cats...I especially like number 5...that is my favourite.

Yes...Chester Zoo has to be on my list of places to visit.

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I have way=tched the video a couple of times now and I have to ask...how on earth did you get that video without going flat on your back?
Are you a contortionist or what :)?


while Planes are not really my thing(they are definitely a BOY thing...or a MAN thing)...well done

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Thanks Margaret, the Cheetahs were a lot bigger than I expected, the last time I went it was a really hot day, so all the big cats were hiding in the shade. The only one I didn't photograph from Sunday was the Black Jaguar.....


I really is a massive zoo, I hadn't realised just how much I'd missed on my first visit....

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Yes, I think when I go, I will have to choose what I want to see.
The big cats would be top of the list....would probably give the reptiles a miss.
Elephants too...they would be up there.

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Here you go some Elephants...

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Exotic Pigeons

1. Nicobar Pigeon
2. Victoria Crowned Pigeon

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Those are the Royalty of the pigeon world.

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Thanks for looking Margaret, what they are doing is I think called a performance takeoff, once off the ground and wheels up they go into a vertical climb, so while it looks a bit backbreaking they are just going straight upwards. A better angle was needed from me but I`d only just got there.

There are some much better videos of the performance take offs on you tube.

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performance take off or not...my question was ...How on earth did you get the capture without going flat on your back?

I have been taking some Ceiling shots insode the Cathedral at Chester....(static objects) and I got a crick in my neck that took two days of ibuprofen to calm down...but then I am a batty old bird

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Lilac Breasted Roller
And a re-edit of the Sumartran Tiger, which after looking at it was a little too dark

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Love No.2’s socks!

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I like the birds fascinator...didn't get that from BHF

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A couple from today: Common Lizard

This is the 3rd year in a row that I've seen Common Lizards on these drystone walls behind Pendle Hill.

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Celestial Skies, a Topaz Studio twiddle of a shot taken today: The blurb for the preset says: "makes skies soft and vibrant".

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What do Earwigs do in your ear?

Despite popular belief, and its name (from the Old English for 'ear beetle'), the Common Earwig will not crawl into your ear while you sleep.... Both my Grandfather and father told me that they would crawl into your ear and bury into your brain..!! Mind you they were both practical jokers...!!!

Earwigs did like to hide in cauliflower and would come running out when my Grandmother would break them apart to clean prior to cooking, I still don't like cauliflower to this day, the earwigs I'm not bothered about...

Looks like there's several of them here on this thistle....

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A lovely pic....can we see the original so that we can compare?
This would make a lovely background for a card.

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While I have heard of earwigs...and yes those myths were told to me a s a child...I have never actually seen one.
So this is a first for me....and NO...I don't like ths subject, but your picture has educated me...what a fearsome looking beetle.

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AS I have previously said, I didn't take any photographs at the Zoo because of the rain. My camera and lenses are too expensive to expose to the rain.
The intention was to get a few shots similar to your Mr Ryewolf for my partner to paint, as Margaret can vouch she is a very talented artist.
She wonders if you would mind if I print one of your zoo photo for her to put on canvas. We wouldn't proceed without your permission. This is a sample of her work.
Thank's in advance,, Russell.

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Yes....Russell, your lady is very talented and her pictures are a pleasure to view...the lion is no exceptiion....beautiful.
I wish I could paint like that!

I have to be satisfied with varnishing floors :D(and I didn't know I could do that)

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The one with the curved pincers is the male, this one I photographed earlier this year is the female.


I've only managed to photograph them on 3 occasions, they are nocturnal and hide themselves away during the day time.

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Yes, my camera and lenses are expensive too, I invested on one of these Stormjackets, they come in various sizes and I've used them when it's been absolutely pelting down.


Yes, that's fine Russell, be interested to see the results when finished

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I am glad they are nocturnal Ryewolf..they are gruesome.

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These guys are the ones to fear - if they were the size of lions.....

The “trash bug” may look like a tiny, harmless ball of meandering fuzz, but upon closer inspection, you will discover that these little guys are really predatory masters of disguise with big scary pincers (maxillae) and a very creepy secret. The “trash” part of this curious insect is not part of it’s body at all, rather it’s a shield composed of dirt, lichen, and various other debris; including the body parts of it’s many previous victims.

Lacewing larvae (Chrysoperla carnea) are prolific eaters of aphids and are often referred to as “Aphid Lions” or “Aphid Wolves”.

The last image is what they grow into, a rather delicate looking fly....

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A cute little owl....

The northern white-faced owl (Ptilopsis leucotis), it along with the Southern white-faced owl were known as white-faced scops-owl.

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Bengal Eagle Owl

I guess I'm quite lucky that a friend of mine has a owl and bird of prey sanctuary...

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Love the birds....can you please feed them the bugs? :)

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Disturbed from his sunbathing. Attachment 57738


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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I took this on Saturday 31st August from Pendle Hill, just a few minutes before I got a phone call to let me know my father had died...

End of Days

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Ryewolf that is beautiful.
The golden end of a beautiful day....the herald of your father's passing to his eternal rest.

It is so very sad to lose a parent, no matter how old they are, but that picture will be the memory for you(and your family) and it will be a reminder that life has precious moment of beauty....even in sadness.

I hope that does not sound 'soppy'...it certainly is not meant to.

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I would have that printed out professionally and have it framed and on my wall.
The more I look at it the more I love it.