Sunday 4 November 2007

Unseasonal warmth, unseasonal mosquitoes

A long weekend of double-digit temperatures and no frost. The mosquitoes have responded to this by thinking that spring has arrived (very) early, and have hatched out in their multitudes. Bring them on, I say! The next touch of frost and they'll all be dead, hopefully not having reproduced and laid their eggs. Mosquitoes can be nasty. Our first weeks in Poland, back in 1997, coincided with a massive plague. My bedroom was covered in hundreds of splatted midges, many containing doses of my blood. Mosquito plagues are brought on by mild winters that end early, followed by wet springs. (Link to Polish Wikipedia page about the local mosquito, Culex Pipiens.)

I've often wondered what's the point of a 1/4000th top shutter speed - see above. This photo was taken at that speed, with ISO set to 1600. And that still does not entirely freeze the beatings of those tiny wings!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You know, I was very surprised to have to squish a mozzie in the car today. I wondered where the little bugger had come from at this time of year. Now I know!

Forecasts are hovering around freezing at night this week so you may get your revenge after all.