End of 2024: Flutterers, fungi and creepy crawlies

Mammals and birds (and a single amphibian) having gotten their own end of year blog already, I still have quite a few images to share. Not in any particular order, I'll start of with some butterflies. I spent a bit of time trying to get some pictures of Queen of Spain fritillaries (Issoria lathonia) and tried finding my first ever large chequered skippers (Heteropterus morpheus). Found plenty of individuals of both species, but no real satisfactory images, a couple shots of these (and some others) are shown below. Maybe some better shots in 2025.

As I had a decent fill of butterflies on my holidays, I spent a little more time in the Netherlands getting back into dragon- and damselflies. My best shots I got while doing a small project of willow emerald damselflies (Chalcolestes viridis) in the garden. A few evenings spent on a rickety staircase to get eyelevel with both the damselflies and  the sunset provided a couple nice shots. A bunch of other images are included as well, the majority being taken against the light, which seems to be a pattern in my macro work for this year.

A few shots of some different bugs before the days started getting shorter, including a bit of creative experimentation with some iron bacteria on water and pond skaters, and some very cool mating behaviour of a pair of tree crickets (Oecanthus pellescens).

As autumn started to roll around and the days got shorter I experimented with flashlights and spiderwebs to capture the threads and their incredible iridescence. 

As autumn really rolled around, a bit of time to get some mushroom shots, including some shrooms with flies on them for some minimalist frames. All in all a pretty good photography year, crowned by a few awards for previous work.