Catching UpIt's been way too long since my last post so this is a catch-up of the last few months. As I touched on back in January, personal circumstances have resulted in some big changes including me moving home but my photography has kept me relatively sane and I've had a few good trips, including a visit to the Forest of Dean for the beastly Hawfinches as well as the Avon Gorge for the resident Peregrine Falcons. I have also finally taken the plunge and upgraded my 300mm F2.8 lens to a 500mm F4. A big difference and still relatively early days but so far so good! The highlight though was finally being published in the national press. More on that later. So, where to start? Well, my feeding station has been doing well and with spring in the air I spent some time with some obliging blue tits in amongst the blossom and got some pleasing results after a bit of work, my favourite couple of shots below:
Finally, and most recently, I've been lured by irresistible temptation of the first butterflies of year, specifically Orange-tips which have emerged during the recent warm weather. My first search was during a cool and overcast evening and despite a good few hours of looking I came home without finding any. Always a disappointment but it makes the next time even more appealing and builds the anticipation. A few days later I met up with dad and we went off in hunt of these small butterflies. It was again overcast and very cool indeed, with a fresh breeze blowing which would make photography more challenging. Almost immediately we found a roosting male on a blackthorn twig. Incidentally, this was in a very small sheltered area where I found a number roosting together last year. We then moved onto a couple of fields which were absolutely full of cuckoo flowers (one of the Orange-tip's main food plants). We spent a lot of time scanning the flowerheads but no joy. We then moved to an adjacent field and within a few minutes of looking we found a couple of males roosting quite close to a hedge. This meant they were sheltered from the breeze so I was able to get a number of images. It was great to find these butterflies as they've been a bogey species for me in previous years. I'm hoping they'll remain close-by for another session soon, so watch this space!
Keywords:
Avon Gorge,
Butterfies,
Forest of Dean,
Hawfinch,
Orange-tip,
Parkend,
Peregrine Falcon,
Spring
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