Hello friends!

This week I wanted to share some recent snaps of my new obsession -Ladybird beetles!! I’ve spent a few days outside watching these bugs and I wanted to take you with me.

Ladybird beetles, one of those little creatures that just gets on with life and never makes any fuss. I noticed a lot more them this year, which is always nice. Obviously they are a great aphid eater which helps the garden no end but they’re also incredibly beautiful.

Enjoy some warm and happy summer colours and plenty of ladybirds…

I let the garden re-wild a little bit for #nomowmay – it didn’t take long for nettles to overtake and the ladybirds were so abundant I ended up buying a feeder to make sure the little guys had enough to eat.

These photographs were taken over about three weeks. At anyone time I could count 30-40 ladybirds which is more than I’ve ever seen! The majority were the red two spotted ones.

I Noticed this little lady (or gentleman) in my hair while I was refilling the ladybird feeder. Saw it in my peripherals and thought ‘spider’ so was mightily relieved when it wasn’t. 

It was happy to pose for a few photos, but I suppose the fact that I had ladybird food on my hand might have had something to do with it.

I’ve never seen ladybirds getting jiggy but they were obviously quite happy with their habitat!

Originally I thought that maybe the black and orange one was a harlequin, which is considered an invasive species in the UK, but when I looked into different ladybird types I discovered that it was actually a Pine Ladybird!

Although the majority of the ladybirds I saw were the tiny two spot ones I also got to photograph some of the much larger seven spot ones as well!

I love the bright tones of this shoot, the colours are so vibrant and the little bugs stand out so well against the green leaves. These photographs were take with my Nikon in macro mode and brightened/contrasted a little in Photoshop, I wanted to capture as many details as possible.

Sometimes the drops of rain were almost as big as the bugs, it was actually raining when I took this one and watching this little fella wandering in the rain was fascinating.

So that’s about it for this week…I’ve enjoyed photographing the ladybirds so much this year, it’s amazing how much bug and plant life thrives without ever expecting a thank you from humanity. Do you have a favourite picture? Thank you so much for reading this post and as always have a great weekend!

p.s the photos were taken with my Nikon camera.