I had to send in my macro lens for repair about a week ago, so while waiting for it to return I decided to experiment with extension tubes a bit with my 24-70 lens and while doing so I noticed some pretty amazing activity going on.
I’d seen this sand wasp once or twice before but this time paid attention as it was making a big commotion and seemed to be flying off with a leaf. Extension tubes make it impossible to focus anything more than about a foot away so I didn’t catch it the first time, but when when she returned I decided to take the tubes off and see if I could catch what she was doing at the 70mm focal length. Everything happens for a reason right?
What I soon realized was it was no leaf she was carrying off earlier, it was a skipper butterfly!
I watched as she lined up her sights and then snagged the skipper right off of the flower at lightning speed. If I wouldn’t’v had the 24-70, I wouldn’t’ve been able to capture the wider shot of her hovering in place getting ready to make the kill. While I always hate to see a creature lose it’s life, this is the natural order of things and an absolutely amazing process to watch. After capturing the wider ambush set up I zoomed in and got a decent couple of shots of her injecting the skipper with her stinger before flying off to bury it for later consumption.
The second kill shot suffers from a bit of motion blur so I didn’t feature it first, but lets you see her little stinger and a much better view of the skipper. The wide angle really needed the panoramic swipe presentation to do it justice but wouldn’t’ve translated well by itself on this medium even though its an amazing shot. I did get a few closeups of the sandwasp already and a couple of solo flight shots that I’ll feature soon, but unfortunately I didn’t get another chance to capture her making a kill. I will be watching for this to happen again and hopefully have more shots of this incredible activity to show again soon.
Happy Monday!