Beautiful Bee Orchids at RSPB Conwy june 6th 2012

It has been  a few years since i last photographed Bee Orchids, so since the butterfly season is really slow with the weather being so bad a quick decision to visit  RSPB Conwy to see the orchids and the birds:)
Arriving early in the morning , the weather was changeable but the sun was out when i arrived which makes a change this year!  haha
After a quick chat with the very helpful rangers in the visitor centre , i knew exactly where to look for the Bee Orchids. the first spot was just behind the centre on the edge of a field where they had put a sign up :)   in fact i found 5 plants in this spot :)  but only one was good enough to photograph!

A walk around the reserve now, a swan is nesting near to the hide on the first lagoon so that is the first place to start :)  and here she is, what a beauty :)

A walk along the boardwalks through the sedges , loads of sedge warblers were making a lot of noise!  haha , but couldn't get any pics.  but i did find this Drinker moth caterpillar feeding on a sedge stem .

at the end of the boardwalk there is a small pond , hopefully i can find a few damselflies but it is early with the cold weather for them to be emerging.  after a quick search i found one on a wooden handrail of all places , newly emerged this morning as it hasn't coloured up yet.  shot with canon mpe-65 macro lens and focus stacked 3 frames to increase depth of field.

 

After getting these shots it started raining , not much so i carried on towards the next lagoon hide , passing on the way this view. just love the carved wooden lapwings ,  so i had to shoot a real one:)

into the hide , and my lens limitations are proven, the birds are just too far away for my 70-300mm on full frame , will have to crop alot!!!!!!!    so here is a lapwing.

and after trying without any rewards to shoot swallows & swifts in flight , shot these:)

Time to go and find the other Orchids now , which are on the coastal path on way back to the centre via the estuary.  i pause to shoot the local Canadian family :)  so cute!

more rain on its way by the look of it! 

A view looking at Conwy castle, taken right by the Orchids:)

and now for the Orchids ,  with yellow vetch flowers all around i used them as a beautiful background to show off the Bee Orchids :D

I noticed a broad legged leaf beetle on a daisy nearby , so  took a few high magnification portraits , showing all the pollen covering its head!  haha

and then i found a Drinker moth catt on the ground , so again shot with mpe-65 macro lens, 3 frames focus stacked.

I will finish of with my favourite Orchid image of the day , taken when the sun went behind a cloud. which gave much softer light.

Wonderful morning at RSPB Conwy.

images shot with canon 5d2, 100mm & mpe-65 macro lens & 70-300is

Slippers and Dukes in Cumbria 21 May 2012

After seeing the Dukes at Gaitbarrows the previous week , but failing to get any decent images.  i decided to go back one last time and then go climb a mountain in the afternoon again :)
the weather was quite sunny again, a small amount of cloud but quite warm compared to the last few days.
Arriving in the empty car park at Gaitbarrows, i made my way over to the slipper orchid area, hoping that a few more had opened in the previous week , since only one plant was open last week!   arriving at the orchids, i always smile reading this sign :)

i found a few in flowers straight away,all 3 Orchid  images are multi frame focus stacks. 8 frames ,each one focused slightly further into the subject so when combined increases the depth of field,and an oof background frame shows off the subject nicely!

Here is the limestone pavement where they are found.

                           What stunning flowers they are , and so rarely found in the wild now.

                         Now time for the Dukes , suns out so they should be flying hopefully :)

Here is one of the main areas for them, with the taped off areas preventing people trampling and damaging the larvae food plants.primrose/cowslip.

After about 10 minutes i found a Duke , the sun was quite strong and was shining from in front of me so it made shooting very difficult, the pale dead grass on the ground made exposure a nightmare too!
so i just had to do the best i could , these are not the best images i have shot by a long way . but the back lighting through the wings looks quite nice :)

Presume these were all males , this one actually landed on the path right in front of me, managed to get a couple shots before he flew:))   but still had sun in wrong place!  arghhhh

                         slightly better light on this one, a small amount of cloud passed over :)

               One final shot before i head of into the lakes to climb a mountain this afternoon :))))  

            Managed a nice background in this one , but light has been just to harsh today :(   trouble is , if it wasnt sunny i would never see the butterflies!!

                       Thats it for the morning, off to climb Helm Crag now near Grassmere :)

The Dukes of Gate Barrows & a Challenge on a Mountain may 16th PT1

I have always wanted to see the rare Duke of Burgundy butterfly, so seeing that they where being seen down in the south of the country i thought that the small population up at Gate Barrows in cumbria  might be worth a look for, and even if i didn't see any at least i could climb a mountain in the afternoon:))
So after  driving up the m6 early one morning ,i arrived at the Gait Barrows car park to find a sign saying that the Ladies Slipper Orchids were in flower :)))  Yay  another subject to photograph.

From the car park there were signs to follow to see the orchids , so that was the first place to start, i have only visited the reserve a few times so don't know my way around very well!
Here is the limestone pavement where the orchids and a lot of the butterflies are found. The weather was quite warm and fairly bright sun , but with patchy cloud appearing later in the morning!

                                                                           The sign :)

Here is the only Orchid that was open!!   it has been so cold that they are well behind last year, in fact this time last year they had almost all finished flowering!  11 frames focus stacked handheld.

I made my way from this area across to the main limestone pavement, amazing to see with its deep fissures and cracks!

                                  Here is a view of the cairn with its memorial plaque!

From this point i walked down through the meadow and around to the open clearings to see if i could find the butterflies!  after about of an hour of looking around, i had only seen a specked wood, a small copper and a peacock!

                          There where plenty of the common purple orchids to be seen

                           a few areas had been taped off and i came across this sign--

I met someone also looking for the Dukes and he had seen one earlier in the morning so had given me directions to where he had seen it.  So a walk back towards the orchids and then into the wooded area behind to where the areas with the Dukes colonies had been taped off!   i soon found a beefly:)

                                                         Amazingly it perched on my finger!

                          Any how , a few minutes later i spotted a " DUKE"   Yay!!!!

A male perched on a grass stem, the bright sun was very difficult to shoot in , but i got these few record shots! this long shot shows how tiny they are!  this is normal thin grass stems!

                                                          Here is the area they are found in

    and a about half hour later, one feeding on a small daisy type flower!  pity about the wing damage!

    So after finally seeing these tiny butterflies, it was time for a mountain to climb :)  Fairfield was the intended target which is part of the Helvelyn range .  the subject of next of blog :)

                                         images shot with canon 5d2 and 100mm L macro.