after nature

The Great Woodpecker is an opportunist takeing every chance it get´s to perforate material. Wood, polysteren, what´s the difference?

Great Woodpecker - Dendrocopos major - pecking a hole into the thermoisolation of a house in Leipzig

It´s way too long that I posted something here. So i wanted to write and show something about a spiderhunting diggerwasp but I was not able to identify the individual so i uploaded the picture on a onlineplatform for hymneopteran identification called hymis.info. So now I have to wait for the ID and the originally intended post gets delayed.
In a unconscious way this summer for me is a dragonflysummer. I learned a lot about the species around here in Leipzig and was able to find some rare ones which are listed already as extinct or where never found in the area before. The problem with these rareties in a photographic way often is, that they are not doing what you would like them to do. Which means they are active in the middaysun (which brings very harsh light), they always fly and when they land you can´t follow the movement with your eyes so you miss the point where it get´s down. One method could be to walk througt the grass nearby the river to shoo up some of them and when you are lucky you can see where they get down again so you have at least a chance to sneak up on them. But in 9 of 10 cases the dragonfly flees before you come in shootingdistance.

Gomphus flavipes - River clubtail - Mating wheel

This description fits perfectly for Gomphus flavipes, the River Clubtail also known as Yellow-legged Clubtail. I was really lucky to make the first record of this rare species for the river Elster and the city of Leipzig. These moments confirm that it´s maybe not just a senseless thing being outside all the time staring at the ground or in the air.
Often I am in a bit of a shizophrenic situation because on the one hand I want to make really good pictures an on the other hand I have a always growing entomological intrest. I´m not shure how to combine this in an productive way. Often it feels like making too much compromises on both sides. The picture shows the mating wheel of Gomphus flavipes. As a photo it´s not perfect. The light is harsh the background is quite chaotic but from a documetary perspective I think the picture ist something. It´s sharp and it shows a situation rarely seen ore captured before. So the quality of the picture depends on the point of view and this point is changeing in myself all the time.

Last week I had the opportunity to attend Andreas Th. Hein, a odonatologist and also a good photographer of his beloved subjects, in Brandenburg. The main focus was clear. Dragonflys! The biodiversety and the pure quantity of them in the mostly renaturated areas around there was really impressive. I have seen one species of Whitefaces before and now I have seen them all. Unbelievable. With elsewhere really rare species sometimes dominating a whole pond Andreas was able to give me a really good introduction into the systamatics and biology of the different species. I´m really thankful, that with his help, I made a geat jump ahead in this field. As the light was mostly very harsh I had to make compromises photographing these insects. Of course I made documetary shots of the different species but as photos they don´t work and I tried some things with the lightning and the background when the oppotunity was there.

Erytromma najas - Large Redeye - Großes Granatauge

Leucorrhinia albifrons - Dark Whiteface just before it´s first flight

Ophiogomphus cecilia - Green Snaketail hatched circa half an hour before

Leucorrhinia rubicunda - Ruby Whiteface

The Downy Emerald Cordulia aenae is the most common Emerald here and in mid may quite a bunch of them hatched in a pool of shallow water in the former coalpit area.

the larva left the water and climed a reedculm

after a while the larva pumps air under the larvaskin and finally it breaks through it´s former skin

after the first step of leaving the larvaskin the dragonfly remains in this position for circa half an hour

then the dragonfly leaves it´s old skin completely and starts to pump fluid into the wings and the abdomen

slowly the newly emerged insect starts colouring

with closed wings the finished emerald waits for better weather to start

Without words. If you want to listen what you can see here please take a look here biophonie.info.

European Fire-bellied Toad - Bombina bombina

European Fire-bellied Toad - Bombina bombina

to show. At least in a single post.  Since the last article very much happened. The migration of the most amphibians started and ended and the springvegetation in the forest exploded. So there was and is much to capture. This post is just a little appetizer for some forthcoming posts wich are dedicated to some more distinct topics.

Moor Frog - Rana arvalis

Corydalis cava

Forestfloor covered by Ramson - Allium ursinum

Since weeks there was a desire for some kind of spring.  Yesterday and today we had a first breakthrough. We had daytemperatures notably above 10 degree celsius. I was curious if there were amphibians on the way to their spawning grounds and finally i was lucky to find some smooth newts in a shallow water pool. Thanks to genetics, with this find i was confonted with the new nomenclature of the newts, where the smooth newt is called Lissotriton vulgaris (former Triturus vulgaris) now. While the smooth newt is quite common, the alluvial forest in Leipzig  with it´s countless small waters was home for a healthy population of the much more threatened great crested newt Triturus cristatus (geneticists speard his name). Unfortunately there was only a find of a single individual in the whole southern alluvial forest in Leipzig, last year. The city is developing a touristic infrastructure through nearly all running waters in the forest to guarantee the connection of the city waters and the great lakes in the former coalmining areas south of the city. In the context of this many heavy encroachments in the hydrologic balance and the condition of the waters in general are done and will be done. This will worsen the situation for the waters in the forest drastically. At the moment the local NGO´s are trying to stop some of these actions. So it´s one of the old games. Tourism against nature. Guess who will be the winner there? Amphibiens and kingfishers? Next try…..

This week I visited the Elbe River floodplain near Wittenberg with some friends. The aim was to find nordic geese and whooper swans. Some of us visited the area regulary in the last weeks to look out for ringed swans and geese. For me of course this was the chance to capture some of the birds and the impressive cultural landscape.

Elbe River Floodplain

Whooper Swans - Cygnus cygnus

Mute Swan - Cygnus olor

Oak