Welcome
to David Element's Wildlife Web Pages...3
----------------David filming an
EMPEROR DRAGONFLY Anax imperator
The Photographer:
- David is a spare-time
naturalist and wildlife photographer specialising mainly
in British animal subjects. The range of species has now
been extended following visits to continental Europe. His
earliest wildlife material was taken using Praktica
SLR cameras, although very few photographs from
the time are of a high enough quality to be displayed
here! From 1985 he used several manual focus Nikon
FE2 cameras with a
small range of Nikkor lenses and
extension tubes and through the lens (TTL) flash
metering, a novelty when the FE2 first appeared in the
shops. Despite their age these robust cameras were
particularly well-suited for Natural History photography
and all are still functioning despite some fairly rough
treatment. A powerful dual flash system was used for much
of the close-up material in order to achieve maximum
depth of field and a high success rate. Most of the older
images on these pages have been copied from Kodachrome
64 or more latterly Fuji Multispeed or
Provia 100F transparency film. Since
late 2005 David has switched exclusively to high
resolution digital photography using initially Nikon
D200 and then Nikon D300 bodies
as these are compatible with his old manual lenses. The
FE2 cameras have now been withdrawn from active service.
The D300 cameras are technically superior to the D200 and
the latter are no longer used for the majority of David's
natural history photography. David is now able to take
higher quality close-ups following the subsequent
purchase of a 105mm macro lens and a single dedicated
flash unit and a gradual process of replacement and
upgrading of the older material should hopefully help to
enhance the content of this site as fresh material is
obtained. Virtually all of David's photographs have been
taken in wild and free conditions without using either a
hide, a tripod or any remote devices. If a subject has
been photographed in captivity then this has been
indicated in the accompanying caption or text. The
wellbeing of wildlife subjects is considered to be of
paramount importance at all times. David now has a
library containing photographs of over 1,400 animal
species and an expanding collection of mini-DV and
digital (i.e. recorded directly to hard drive) film of
wildlife subjects. Several of David's pictures have been
highly commended in the prestigious international Wildlife
Photographer of the Year Competition.
Publications.
- David's work has been
published in books, including:
- 'The National
Trust Book of British Wild Animals', John
Burton, Jonathan Cape 1984. ISBN 0-224-02104-4
- 'Dragonflies of
Surrey', Peter Follett, Surrey Wildlife
Trust 1996. ISBN 0 9526065 1 8
- 'Collins Gem
Insects Photoguide' Michael Chinery, HarperCollins
1997. ISBN 0-00-470939-X
- 'Hoverflies of
Surrey', Roger K. A. Morris, Surrey
Wildlife Trust 1998. ISBN 0 9526065 3 4
- 'Grasshoppers
and Crickets of Surrey', David W. Baldock, Surrey
Wildlife Trust 1999. ISBN 0 9526065 4 2
- 'Collins Wild
Guide Insects' Bob Gibbons HarperCollins
1999. ISBN 0-00-220134-8
- 'Field Guide to
Insects of Britain and Europe',
Bob Gibbons, Crowood Press 1999. ISBN 1 85223
895 X
- 'Wildlife
Photographer of the Year' Portfolio 9 Fountain
Press 1999 ISBN 0 86343 338 3
- 'Ladybirds of
Surrey', Roger D. Hawkins, Surrey
Wildlife Trust 2000. ISBN 0 9526065 5 0
- 'Amphibians and
Reptiles of Surrey', Julia Wycherley MBE
and Richard Anstis, Surrey Wildlife Trust 2001,
ISBN 0 9526065 6 9
- 'Shieldbugs of
Surrey', Roger D. Hawkins, Surrey
Wildlife Trust 2003. ISBN 0 9526065 77
- 'Travellers'
Nature Guides Spain', Teresa Farino and
Mike Lockwood, Oxford University Press 2004,
ISBN 0-19-850435-7
- 'The Beetles of
Surrey A Checklist', Dr. Jonty Denton, Surrey
Wildlife Trust 2005. ISBN 0 9526065 8 5
- 'Pocket Nature
Insects and Spiders', George McGavin ,
Dorling Kindersley 2005. ISBN 1 4053 0596 7
- 'Complete
British Insects', Michael Chinery,
HarperCollins 2005. ISBN 0 00 717966 9
- 'Ants of
Surrey', John Pontin, Surrey Wildlife
Trust 2005. ISBN 0 9526065 9 3
- 'Bees of
Surrey', David W. Baldock, Surrey
Wildlife Trust 2008. ISBN 978 0 9556188 1 9
- 'British Moths
and Butterflies', Chris Manley, A&C
Black/Christopher Helm ISBN 978-0-7136-4 2008.
Commissioned from the author following the publication of
the 'Moths of Trigon', this
ambitious project contains almost 2,400 photographs of
live insects from over 50 contributors including 850
macromoths, 500 micromoths, 74 butterflies and 314
larvae. This book is intended to appeal to a wide
audience including the non-expert. The book includes a
reference for this website, but unfortunately the URL has
been erroneously reproduced as: www.davidelement.ukgateway.net. Hopefully this link will help
as it connects to the Home page!
- 'Pocket Nature
Wildlife of Britain', various authors,
Dorling Kindersley 2009. ISBN 978-1 4053 2860-9
- 'Bugs
Britannica', Peter Marren & Richard
Mabey, Chatto & Windus 2010. ISBN
978-0-701-18180-2
- 'Gardening for
Butterflies, Bees and other beneficial insects - A how-to
guide', Jan Miller-Klein, Saith Ffynnon
Books 2010. ISBN 978-0-9555288-0-4. Proceeds for Butterfly
Conservation.
FORTHCOMING
PUBLICATIONS:
'Hoverflies of
Hertfordshire', Malcolm Aldridge, Brambley Books,
due date unknown.
'Wasps of Surrey',
David W. Baldock, Surrey Wildlife Trust, due 2010 with numerous
high quality photographs.
and in magazines including
ARKive
- David is one of many
natural history photographers and film-makers currently
involved with supplying transparencies, scans and video
material to Wildscreen's
tremendously exciting, innovative and now multi-award
winning ARKive project based in
Bristol (e-mail: info@wildscreen.org.uk, website address: www.arkive.org.uk). ARKive
was launched in May 2003. There is a huge amount
of work still to be done as the site expands and the
range of illustrated species increases. This project is a
truly enormous undertaking! The images on the ARKive
website have been scanned to a high
standard and hyperlinks are being
provided from this site to relevant species accounts. The
ARKive site has recently been re-vamped for the
second time and this site is now more user-friendly (the
species links to ARKive pages on this site are
gradually being upgraded, although all of the original
links will still direct users to the homepage). It is
intended that a permanent digital record of the World's
rare species will be maintained for the benefit of
current and future generations. See the following link: http://www.arkive.org/info.html for further information about
the purpose of this project. Recent news is the linkage
of rare species distribution to 'Google
Earth'. David has contributed over 130
still images and 120 digital video clips of British
subjects to this site and more recently some material has
been provided for some significant European insects.
David's still photographs and video clips may be accessed
by looking up individual species on ARKive
or by following the hyperlinks from this site.
Surrey Wildlife Atlas Project
- David is a part of the team
involved with the production of the Surrey
Wildlife Trust Wildlife Atlases (*available
from the S.W.T.
- see below) and he has acted as joint photographic
editor for several of the most recent books in this
groundbreaking and highly regarded series in addition to
providing many of the illustrations. Further information
about these atlases may be obtained from the Surrey
Wildlife Trust website at
the following address: http://www.surreywildlifetrust.co.uk/ and linked 'Publications'
pages within the S.W.T. site provide
examples of the many favourable comments that these books
have received. A review by Peter Marren in 'British
Wildlife' Volume 15 Number 2
December 2003 describes this as being a "Superlative
series". Despite the apparently
parochial titles and localised maps, the species
descriptions and photographs contained in these volumes
are valid references for a much wider geographical area
and the Trust is extremely fortunate to be able to draw
on the expertise of a unique collection of talented
authors and a superb designer in Clare Windsor. 'Shieldbugs
of Surrey' (24 colour plates) is selling
well and the ninth book in this series 'Ants
of Surrey' was published in October 2005.
'Water Beetles and Bugs of Surrey'
written and photographed by Dr. Jonty Denton was
published (Autumn 2007). This book will be a useful
reference, particularly for pond-dipping activities and
it has received a very good review in 'British
Wildlife'. 'Bees
of Surrey' by David Baldock was published
during autumn 2008 and this too has attracted some
extremely positive comments. This atlas has been selling
fast both in the UK and in northern Europe. Several
excellent photographers including Graham Collins and
Jeremy Early have taken some superb photographs for this
book and an unprecedented range of species hasl been
illustrated for a British publication on bees. The book
contains 48 colour plates and almost 300 pages and it
should be of great value to anyone with an interest in
aculeates. Further volumes are being planned for Wasps
(at a very advanced stage and due to be
published prior to the Amateur Entomologists'
Exhibition at Kempton Park in 2010 and also with
48 colour plates illlustrating a similarly broad range of
subjects), Mammals, Micro Moths (?2011),
Soldierflies and Robberflies,
Molluscs, Sawflies and Spiders
(no definite publication dates are available yet
for these books and the order and subject matter may
change). The first of a series of Surrey
vice-county checklists (Beetles) was published
during 2005. David used to sit on the editorial board of
the Surrey Wildlife Trust
magazine 'Surrey Nature' and he
has contributed many photographs and articles based on
his experiences in the field to this magazine.
Television
- Some of David's intimate
close-up video material of two foxes appeared in a Twenty
Twenty Television 'Cutting Edge' documentary
about London's urban foxes entitled 'Meet
the Foxes' which was broadcast on Channel
4. It is realised that some viewers were
understandably upset by the final sequence shown in which
a dogfox and pregnant vixen were shot dead. David would
like to point out that his archive sequences were used as
part of a composite film for narrative purposes and both
of the animals seen in his film clips are presumed to
have died some time later from natural causes. The vixen
used for the portrait shots produced a litter of (unseen)
cubs and she disappeared during the floods of July 2007.
As she was carrying an injury at the time she might have
drowned. The second vixen (representing a male in the
fictitious film) is assumed to have either been killed or
driven from her territory by a very elusive dogfox early
in December during the same year. The dangers of life in
an urban environment are genuine and many foxes do suffer
an early and violent death as accurately shown in this
film. The population may also fluctuate greatly in
response to outbreaks of sarcoptic mange. More recently
(July 2010) following a heavily publicised news story
about twin babies that were apparently savaged by a fox
in their upstairs bedroom much of this film was re-edited
with some new footage under the title 'Urban
Fox Attack' and shown on More4.
Once photographs of the wounds were shown it became
evident that they were indeed consistent with the type of
bite-marks that a fox might inflict on its animal prey
and it is quite obvious why this event was so upsetting.
It is very much hoped that these children both make a
complete recovery with minimal scarring. However, it is
important to keep such matters in perspective and to
ensure that any risk assessments about the possible
threat to humans are evidence-based, taking into account
the number of reported bite incidents and their severity.
It is also appropriate to ensure that any possible
actions taken relating to fox population control are
based on sound expert judgement rather than any poorly
informed knee-jerk populist political whims, not least
because the foxes' breeding strategy is already
self-limiting. For example any risk of physical injury
from a fox should be weighed against the comparative risk
from dog bites or from injuries inflicted by other
humans. It must be emphasised that fox bites are
extremely rare whereas some 'domestic' dogs seem to have
been bred with the specific intent of inflicting maximum
potential physical violence. Non-accidental injuries to
children are often encountered in hospital casualty
departments (unlike fox bites). Several young children
have tragically been killed by vicious dogs that could
not be controlled. In addition, more pathological
organisms are recorded as having been horizontally
transmitted by human bites than by dog bites. It was also
erroneous for the film to have reported that rural foxes
live for eight years as this is likely to be a maximum
life-expectancy as there are many hazards in the
countryside as well. An account of Red Fox
biology may be read on Mammals 2 and photographs of one of the
vixens seen in these films appear on Mammals 8 and Mammals10. For the record, the
photographer and his family have hand-fed foxes on
numerous occasions without ever receiving anything more
threatening than a lick. However, care was also taken not
to raise hands above the foxes' heads so that they did
not feel threatened and they were never cornered.
St. George's Hospital
Activities
- David was a member of the
now defunct Environmental Operations Group
and he also attended the Arts for the Healing
Environment Committee meetings at St.
George's Hospital http://www.st-georges.org.uk/ in London. Linked webpages
illustrating some of the animal species and cultivated
plants recorded at this site may be accessed by clicking here.
Habitat-based Webpages
- David has also set up
several habitat-based webpages. Two
linked webpages containing images of insects and higher
animals (both recently updated with new digital
photographs) inhabiting the River Wandle
corridor may be accessed by clicking here. A webpage illustrating a
selection of Heathland Insects
may be accessed by clicking here. A webpage illustrating a
selection of Chalk Downland Insects
may be accessed by clicking here. Note that there is some
duplication of the images from the main website on these
linked pages and that the species on these webpages are
not necessarily exclusive residents of these types of
habitat.
Photographic Agencies
- Please note that
wildlife photography is a very expensive and
time-consuming pursuit and that it is therefore
considered reasonable to charge a fee for the
reproduction of original photographs - see 'TERMS
AND CONDITIONS' below.
Webpage Formation
- All images on this website
have been digitally watermarked. Until
February 2004 the transparencies were copied as digital
stills over a lightbox using either a Canon
MV20 or a Canon
MV550i mini-DV camera and then
downloaded as bitmaps or j-pegs using Pinnacle
DC10 software. The images were
resized and/or cropped as appropriate in Word
documents and then compressed using FrontPage
Express. This method of copying cannot
produce image reproduction of an equivalent quality to a
modern high-resolution scanner and certain colours do not
reproduce well. Nevertheless it was a cheaper (and
faster) process than commercial scanning and using it has
allowed the photographer to include a much larger range
of photographs than would otherwise have been the case
within such a limited timescale. There are now
comparatively few of these original images left on this
site.
- Following the acquisition
of digital SLR cameras (Nikon
D200 and D300) since the end of
2005 all of the recent photographs have been taken as
digital images - and there has been a significant
improvement in quality. It is hoped that most of the
original images on this site will eventually be replaced
by digital photographs. Relocating every single species
will be a huge undertaking and for this reason some of
the older pre-digital pages may need to be retained for
some time to come under the premise that it is probably
more useful to include an old illustration rather than
none at all. Although this has been a lengthy process
good progress has now been made and the majority of pages
have now been upgraded. Some URLs may be altered and
pages may become temporarily unavailable on search
engines. However, the original titles and hyperlinks will
be retained, so searches within the site will be
unaffected.
RED FOX
Vulpes vulpes feeding
from the photographer's hand
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
FOR USE OF SCANNED AND DIGITAL IMAGES
- David has received requests
to use his pictures from a number of sources and it is
implicit from the content of incoming e-mails that some
prospective users expect to reproduce photographic
material for free. This is a strange presumption as
normally everyone else involved in the publication
process will be receiving payment for their work - and
the images themselves are only obtained as a part of an
expensive process involving the use of high quality
cameras, computing equipment and a great deal of time!
After all, one would not normally walk into a shop, take
an item and expect to leave without paying! The terms and
conditions for use have been given below, but part of the
text of a letter of response to a potential client has
been paraphrased here in order to explain exactly why
payment is expected:
- "The expectation often
seems to be that I should subsidise others by not
charging anything - i.e. that I should run at a net
loss! I do take account of the use of material
for educational purposes and may reduce my charges as a
consequence. However, it is easy to forget that
what you see on line is the cumulative result of many
years of effort and knowledge and that the
information on the internet has been provided at my
own expense. I do therefore feel entirely justified
in charging commercial concerns for the use of my
material."
- High resolution
digital photographs of an expanding range of
species are now available and there is also a reasonable
selection of digital video clips of
mainly invertebrate subjects. This site cannot contain
information about the full selection of species because
of space limitations.
- Broadband communication
will enable copies of original photographs or
low-resolution film clips to be forwarded without any
loss in quality. Still photographs can
be supplied as compressed high quality j-pegs by
return e-mail and converted to/saved as TIF
files (28-35Mb approx.) using Adobe Photoshop
on receipt if necessary. This should enable good
quality image reproduction at a large enough scale for
most uses. If this is not an option then unless otherwise
specified, high resolution digital images
will be supplied as j-pegs or TIF files
on CD or DVD. Short
video clips may also be forwarded by e-mail although
there are size limitations. After use CD/DVDs
should be returned to the photographer by first class
mail. Please read COPYRIGHT
ISSUES page for further information. All
materials will be supplied for one-time
reproduction purposes only.
These digital files must not be copied or
stored in any form without
the express prior permission of David
Element.
- Although many of David's
older transparencies have now been digitally scanned and
are therefore readily available as j-pegs by return
e-mail, advance warning would be
appreciated as it may be necessary to locate and scan
transparencies of more obscure subjects.
- It is hoped that users
will respect the need for authentic portrayal of the
subjects (with the exception of any technical
adjustments required for reproduction) unless otherwise
agreed in advance with the photographer. This
does not apply to the selective removal of background if
the subject of the photograph is to be used as a stand
alone image. Windows Media Player (or equivalent) will be
needed to view the digital film clips (.avi files).
- Fees for the use of
digital still images or moving images will be charged at
the discretion of the photographer and with the mutual
agreement of the user. If professional quality material
is being provided then it is not unreasonable for a
freelance photographer to expect users to pay the
equivalent of photographic agency prices. Please note
that the compilation and indexing of photographs or film
is a time-consuming process normally taking several hours
and it is therefore perfectly legitimate to expect
payment of a fee if material has been
received by a client and not actually used.
Note that the average hourly
wage in the UK is £12:50 (2008).
Customer invoices will be sent by e-mail.
- Any images used for
publication in any format will remain the intellectual
property and copyright of the photographer.
- All images used on
other web sites must be digitally watermarked and fully
credited to the photographer (including the URL
of this website if possible) and it is expected that metatags
will be employed in order to identify the subject and the
photographer for internet search purposes.
- The use of hyperlinks
to this website from other bona fide
websites is welcomed.
- Original transparencies are
not available for reproduction or
sale.
- The client will be
responsible for the secure storage of digital images
while they are in his or her possession and for their
deletion after use.
- Note that unauthorised
copying from these web pages is illegal and in breach of
international copyright law! Permission
is required for the reproduction of copyrighted images on
other websites. Legal
action may be taken if any of the material from this
website is used without prior permission and without
payment. Legal action will not be taken
without the provision of fair warning to offenders. If
unauthorised photographs are found to be in use on any
other web site in breach of copyright then an invoice
will be forwarded by e-mail to the webmaster with a
request for a £50 annual fee to cover the use of the
material. This will be backdated to the original date
from which the illegal use of the photograph commenced.
If this payment is received within a period of two
calendar months from the invoice date then no further
action will be taken.
SITE ANNOUNCEMENTS
- The pages on this web site
are being steadily upgraded using digital photographs and
to a lesser extent scanned images although progress may
sometimes be slow because of other commitments, for
example full-time work, involvement with time-consuming
publications and family responsibilites! Once the
photographs have been taken everything needs to be
accurately identified and catalogued before appearing
on-line and this is a major and never-ending task. There
are many examples of inaccurate identifications on the
internet, so care needs to be taken when researching
invertebrates in particular. A general resemblence does
not qualify as an accurate identifiation! Note that it
may be necessary to refresh these modified pages in order to
avoid picture distortion. The range of illustrated
species is being gradually expanded and one consequence
has been the removal of some pictures of duplicated
subjects due to limitations on currently available
webspace. There has been an improvement in image quality
since the switch to using modern digital SLR cameras and
as a general rule the photographs on the higher numbered
pages will reflect this.
- There have been quite a lot
of modifications recently including some new additions
following two trips to the Mediterranean coastal region
of Southern France. The Hymenoptera pages
have been updated as a consequence of obtaining fresh
material for the plates of 'Bees of Surrey'
and the forthcoming 'Wasps of Surrey').
The newly expanded Mining Bees Hymenoptera 3 and Bumblebees Hymenoptera
11 now
have their own pages and Hymenoptera 9 contains a new series of
photographs of French wasps and bees.
The Social Wasps page Hymenoptera 2 has also been updated although
there is clearly a need for better photographs of some of
these species. This is also the case for the revised and
abbreviated Hymenoptera 8 Sawflies for
which new material will need to be taken. Hymenoptera 6 has also been edited and a new Honey
Bee page, Hymenoptera 12 has been added. Hymenoptera 10 Hairy-footed Flower Bees
was the first page to contain higher resolution images as
captured by the new Nikon D300 camera
although some of these pictures have already been
replaced with newer (and better) material. Hymenoptera
13
Nomad Bees, Hymenoptera 14 Ruby-tailed Wasps,
Hymenoptera 18 Social Wasps, 19 Ornate-tailed Digger
Wasps, 20 European Potter Wasps,
21 Yellow-faced Bees (i.e.
the nationally rare Hylaeus pictipes)
22 Small Carpenter Bees,
23 Field Digger Wasps and
24 Solitary Bees are
all new additions to this site. A new page Bugs
23
illustrates Tortoise Bugs and another, Bugs
24
portrays nymphs and adults from two newly discovered
London breeding colonies of Southern Green
Shieldbugs. Bugs 4 Homopteran Bugs
has been updated with a couple of new photographs
although there is still a need for more new images for
this page. Bugs 15 Parent Bugs has
a new illustration and an additional Assassin Bug
species has been added to Bugs 21. Several of the Flies pages
have also been revised, for example Flies 4 Robberflies, Bee-flies,
6 Robberflies, 12 Miscellaneous Flies
and 17 Hoverflies, and
the range of species has been expanded on some new pages Flies
21, 22, 24 Hoverflies and Flies
23
Conopid Flies. Some poorer quality images of
robberflies have been removed until better quality
photographs become available. New (and much improved)
portraits of Banded Demoiselles have
been displayed on Dragonflies and Damselflies 7 and 15 and nine new pages have been
added incorporating new digital pictures from the UK and
Italy, Dragonflies and Damselflies 29 Broad-bodied Chasers,
30 Large Red Damselflies,
31 Scarce Chasers,
25, 32 Scarlet Darters,
33 White-legged Damselflies,
34 Red-veined Darters,
35 Common Winter
Damselflies, 36 Black-tailed Skimmers,
37 Migrant Hawkers, 38 Violet
Dropwings and 39 Lesser Emperors.
Dragonflies and Damselflies 1, 22 Migrant Hawkers,
6, 8 Damselflies and
34 Red-veined Darters
now have replacement photographs following the
availability of new digital material. Butterflies 1 Pieridae,
3 Brimstones,
4 Swallowtails,
7 Nymphalidae, 8 Satyridae, 11, Hesperidae, 12 Riodinidae, Nymphalidae,
13 Red Admirals (including
a link to one of David's videos of this species), 16 Nymphalidae, 20 Peacocks, 24 Painted Ladies
and 29 Orange-tips
(again with a hyperlink to some of David's video
material) have also been updated with new photographs
taken either in the UK or in the Haute Pyrénées,
France. This also applies to the photographs of European
Shieldbugs on Bugs 10 and to Orthopteroids 20 which illustrates several montane
grasshopper species. Other Orthopteroids
pages (2, 5, 6,12 and 18) have also being revised, either
to improve the image quality or to include additional
species. Orthopteroids 21 Lily Bush Crickets
and 22 Sword-tail Crickets have
been added following a visit to Italy and Orthopteroids 23 Egyptian Grasshoppers
and 24 Predatory Bush Crickets
following atrip to Mediterranean France. The generic
title of these pages is not entirely correct as the
earwigs, cockroaches and mantids really ought to be
separated from the grasshoppers, bush crickets and true
crickets. This process has now begun with the
reclassification of the mantid pages. Orthopteroids 15 and 16 now contain photographs of Sickle-bearing
Bush Crickets and Woodland Grasshoppers
and the original pages have been renamed as Mantids 1 and 2 respectively. Although their
contents have not been altered an additional page Mantids
3 has
been added. The opportunity has also been taken to
replace all of the old photographs on the Site
Index page with new (mainly) digital images. A
new page, Mammals 21 illustrates Alpine
Marmots from the Haute Pyrénées and Mammals 12 has been updated to include a
new digital Atlantic Grey Seal image. Mammals 11 Red Squirrels
and Mammals 15 Hedgehogs have
also been modified following the acquisition of some new
photographs from France. Following a lengthy period spent
concentrating mainly on labour-intensive entomological
subjects (particularly for the Surrey Wildlife Atlas
series) David has at long last had a chance to return to
some serious bird photography although it is acknowledged
that the arrangement of species on these pages is in many
cases not particularly systematic and also that there are
some significant omissions of common species! Several
additional raptors have been added to Birds
32
including the elusive Lammergeier and
two new pages, Birds 36, illustrate a Dabchick
in mid-dive. Birds 37 Little Egrets, Birds
38
Goldcrests, Birds
39
Black-headed Gulls, Birds 40 Rose-ringed Parakeets,
Birds 41 Barn Owls, Birds
42
Goldfinches and Birds 43 Black-necked Grebes
are also new additions, hopefully demonstrating the
improvement in quality that may be obtained by attaching
a new Nikon D300 digital body to a 1990 vintage manual
400mm Nikon lens. Birds 44 includes some
of the first new photographs from 2010, in this case of Red
Kites photographed in warm winter sunshine and Birds45 illustrates
three Auk species photographed on the
western Scottish coast, Birds 46 shows
Greater Flamingos in the Camargue and Birds 47 Bee-eaters inhabiting
the same area of southern France. Birds
8 Woodpeckers
and Owls, Birds 9, 16, 27 Grey Herons, Birds
12
Finches, Birds 15 Titmice, Birds
22
Moorhens, Birds 24 Robins, Birds 30 Mute Swans and Birds 34 Black-winged Stilts
have also been revamped with some new digital
photographs. Wildlife of the Wandle
Corridor - Insects has now been rewritten to include many
new digital photographs of an altered range of subjects.
Digital images from a visit to Tuscany (Toscana) are now
on display on Amphibians and Reptiles 29 Aesculapian Snakes,
30 Moorish Geckos
and 31 European Wall Lizards.
More new material, mainly insects, has been added,
including Butterflies 32 Cleopatras, a
revision of Damselflies and
Dragonfles 26 Copper (formerly Mediterranean)
Demoiselles, an upgraded photographic content
for Butterflies 19 Knapweed Fritillaries,
Butterflies 1 Pieridae,
Butterflies 33 Spotted Fritillaries,
Hymenoptera 15 Sphecid Wasps, Hymenoptera
16 Mammoth
Wasps and Hymenoptera
17
Bees of Tuscany. Butterflies 28 Marbled Whites now
includes digital pictures taken on the North Downs and a
new page, Beetles 21 illustrates a Colorado
Beetle. Beetles 22 contains new photographs of Rose
Chafers taken in Tuscany and Beetles
17
Cardinal and Lily Beetles now has some
additional photographs. Beetles 23 shows several photographs of a Great
Capricorn Beetle from southern France. On the
domestic front, some new digital shots of Adders,
Slow-worms and Great-crested
Newts have been added to Amphibians and Reptiles 10, Amphibians and Reptiles 32 and Amphibians and Reptiles
12
respectively and Neuroptera, Mecoptera 1 has also been updated. Finally,
the Spiders pages Spiders
1, 2, 3, 4 have been given a long overdue
facelift with most of the photographs being replaced or
reorganised and an additional page Spiders
5 has
been added.
BBC London
Web Galleries
- As a departure from the
contents of this site a range of botanical subjects have
also been included in some of these galleries.
- David's daughters, Sarah
Jane and Nicola have also
displayed some of their photographs on these websites.
Richard Lewington
- The renowned wildlife
artist Richard Lewington has kindly
consented to his contact details being displayed on this
website. Anyone with a serious interest in natural
history (and in particular entomology) will be familiar
with the unfailingly high standard of his exquisite
illustrations and David is delighted to be able to report
that a splendid example of Richard's work has now been
added on a new web page at: The Artwork of Richard Lewington. A far more important recent
development (June 2010) has been the
launch of Richard's own brand new web site at: http://www.richardlewington.co.uk/index.php and users of
this site are strongly encouraged to follow this link and
to take a look at his work in detail (and hopefully buy
some!). Richard may be contacted at: rlewington@btopenworld.com. Amongst his more recent
projects Richard has provided all of the non-photographic
illustrations for an important new dragonfly book
covering the full range of European species, 'Field
Guide to the Dragonflies of Britain and Europe',
General Editor Klaas-Douwe B Dijkstra,
published by British Wildlife Publishing, 2006,
ISBN 0-9531399-4-8 (this book is a must have for
anyone with an interest in dragonflies). He has also
painted most of the colour plates for 'Guide
to Garden Wildlife' ISBN
978-9531399-7-2 by the same publisher. His
brother Ian Lewington: http://www.ian-lewington.co.uk/ (another very gifted artist)
painted the birds. Richard is currently working on a new
British Wildlife Publishing guide to British
Micro-Moths and a new and fully revised version
of the splendid 'The Butterflies of Britain
and Ireland' by Jeremy Thomas
and Richard Lewington was published in
April 2010 by British Wildlife Publishing: http://www.britishwildlife.com Tel: 01747 835511.
Richard often displays his work (much of which is
available for sale) at wildlife-based exhibitions, for
example the annual Amateur Entomologists'
Exhibition (AES) at Kempton
Park Racecourse and the biennial Butterfly
Conservation events at Juniper Hall in Surrey.
Guest Photographers
- Another feature is a Guest Photographer slot. Jeremy Early,
a Surrey-based journalist, naturalist and talented
part-time photographer contributed a splendid series of
images which used to be displayed here until Jeremy's own
(highly recommended) website was established (12/06).
Most of these have been removed although a single 'link'
web page has been retained with a few superb bird
photographs and hyperlinks to strategically significant
pages on his website - see: Jeremy Early for further
details. Jeremy is the author of 'HIDDEN JEWELS - The Wildlife
of Leatherhead and Fetcham' and he was the principal
contributor to the 48 colour photographic plates of 'Bees
of Surrey'. Peter and Erica Clarke have submitted a digital
photograph of a Greater Horntail brought in by their cat!
In addition, David's young daughters Sarah Jane and Nicola have each made a contribution
showing examples of their own efforts at wildlife
photography as Guest *Junior
Photographers. *This description was
perhaps more relevant at the time that the pages were set
up several years ago. Nicola's original webpage was
revamped (following the acquisition of a digital camera)
with a new selection of photographs and she has designed
an additional Wildlife Webpage herself. Older sister Sarah
Jane's Mute Swans page has also been updated with
scanned versions of her original photographs and two
additional pages have been added illustrating Empusid
Mantids and other species photographed in
France. Both have added new pages illustrating portraits
of a Red Fox vixen and Nicola's splendid
Robin close-up has also been added. The
photographs and text are the intellectual property and copyright of the guest photographer(s) and
any opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the
webmaster.
'Scraperboards'
OTHER MISCELLANEOUS
LINKS:
These links are presented in no
particular order - and doubtless with significant omissions as
there are innumerable other websites equally worthy of
endorsement! Other subject-specific links have been provided on
appropriate pages elsewhere on this site. Most of these sites
have numerous hyperlinks that will enable their users to discover
a veritable wealth of useful information. Note that although they
were functional at the time of insertion it is not uncommon for
links to become unavailable as web content is often subject to
alteration.
- http://www.naturefg.com/pages/exhibitions.htm connects to several on-line
galleries images by a variety of international
photographers. These annual photographic exhibitions
covering dragonflies, spiders, butterflies andmoths and
orchids have been set up by Dragiša Savic:
dragita@gmail.com from the Fruska
Gora National Park and they have toured Serbia
in printed format. The latest exhibitions (2009/10) cover
Amphibians and Reptiles and Beetles
and Weevils. David has several pictures included
in these exhibitions. Dragiša's own excellent
photographs may be accessed at: http://www.naturefg.com/pages/exhibitions.htm
- The BioLib
Library is a very useful Czech site with an
emphasis on Taxonomy (English translation is available)
at: http://biolib.cz/en/main/
- Josef Hlasek's
Photo Gallery Wildlife Pictures at:
http://www.hlasek.com/index.html is another
Czech site with some excellent photographs of European
subjects - very useful for identification purposes.
© David
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