Butterflies.

Its the time of the year for Butterflies. The birds are looking a little worse for wear so attention swaps to the smaller and often prettier butterflies.

Here are a small selection of what I've seen whilst out and about lately.

This is a Small Skipper

Here's a Green Veined White.

Highest influx of Painted Lady butterflies since 1997,

The Red Admiral is, in my humble opinion, a much underrated butterfly, It can be very entertaining.

I doubt anyone would disagree that the Small Tortoiseshell is also a beautiful example of a lovely butterfly.

Small Copper butterflies are looking good right now, I got these at my spot near Sling.

Ditto this Pale Common Blue.

I was chatting to Andy Carey recently and he tells me he's only a few away from completing his list of every British butterfly, I don't think that is something I could acheive but I am impressed by his efforts, I would love to see more butterflies.

Back to the Spoonbill.

In the last post I mentioned that Chris G and I had photographed the Spoonbill. On reflection I don't think I expressed well enough the time Chris and I spent that day on the Spoonbill.

We arrived before nine in the morning, left after five in the evening and with the exception of small breaks for food and a trip to the Kingfisher hide to see what was occurring there, we waited for the spoonbill to come closer. It didn't.

It did however change its pose once or twice, even if it didn't move very far. Difficult to preen yourself with a beak that big I guess.

We couldn't see any boogie box or earphones any where but it had a little dance at one point.

Having knackered itself out it had a sit down, something it did not do easily and was even more uneasy getting back up again.

Clearly all the dancing and preening made it tired so it had a yawn and went back to sleep.

Not a bird you see everyday so in all, despite the fact we didn't get close pics, I was pleased to see it for so long. I have pictures of another bird which I only just managed to see to follow in a future post, watch this space.

All over the place.

Apologies for the lack of postings recently, this has been largely due to limited internet connectivity and also a lot of time spent photographing stuff to put on here.

Chris Grady and I went to Slimbridge WWT recently to try and capture the Spoonbill that was there.

We saw it and photographed it but it came no closer than 150 yards, so this is about as good as the shots got.



However, I wasn't disappointed they are the best I've had of a Spoonbill since Norfolk last year and I think this was closer too.

The Black Tailed Godwits came close though, this is only a very small crop and there were others that I have not cropped at all.


A lovely group of birds in changing plumage.

The day had started dull but it turned into a great day, there were lots of the usual suspects to keep us amused.

This coot looked great in the sun.

The Jackdaws were coming too close for anything other than portrait shots.

There was at least one Great Crested Grebe chick, swimming around with parents.

This woodpigeon decided to make the most of a quick dip to cool its feet.

I'll put a few of the other pictures together for the next post. I hadn't been to Slimbridge for a while and whilst it wasn't as busy as I'd hoped the Spoonbill was a tick for this year and that can't be bad.

Another award winning shot.

Dave Slater has had his work recognised again and has won first place in yet another competition. Its a Photojournalism award in a competition run by the NPPA (National Press Photographers association)

For the exact details check out his website from my links www.djsphotography.co.uk
Its a great picture of Ground Squirrels fighting, and it featured in some newspapers earlier in the year.

Well done Dave.

On a personal level I've done nil photography since my last post, I'm back up North at my mothers, having my motorhome M.O.T'd tomorrow, and hoping to spend some time at Conwy on wednesday, weather permitting.

I've been staying on a little Caravan club CL site at 7.00 pounds a night with electric hook up and shower room /toilet. Its in the village of Guilden Sutton and on a small farm. It's quite quaint.

House sitting and nest watching.

The family commitments continued this last week, I had to house sit for my son as he was having work done whilst at work. The weather has been bad so I don't feel as if I missed a lot.

I left Newport on sunday afternoon, hoping to escape the rain. It didn't happen, the rain was already waiting for me in Ross on Wye. I should explain that I can't move too far from the Forest of Dean this week as my dog is in the vets tomorow (weds), and my van brakes are being done at the same time.

Yesterday I moved to a little site on the outskirts of Ross on Wye at Sellack, it's a Caravan Club certified location and has a small shower room and toilet, and of course the electric hook up. I must get round to trying my Generator out at some point. It's a little expensive for a CL at fifteen pounds a night, but I've spent less than 140.00 pounds this month on sites so I can afford it.

Photgraphy wise I have been at a loss, I have struggled with the weather and the drive to do anything. That changed when I saw Chris Grady's Swallow and House Martin shots on the net today. I was so inspired I took the following.

Swallows are nesting in a stable at this location, so I asked for permission and went to see what I could get. One hundred and fifty shots laater I could not get a flight shot but I got some nice ones of the nest and chicks.

Four chicks to feed meant mum and dad were in and out at a fantastic rate of knots. I could hardly keep up. I tried lots of different shuttter speeds and settings, but again I shied away from using the external flash opting instead for the 50D's built in flash. I MUST get to grips with learning about my kit. I'm happy with the results especially in bigger size.

The only other pictures I've taken this last week were this painted lady at Newport Wetlands on saturday.

So with another week of commitments and a trip up to Chester to collect mail and tax the van this coming weekend its gonna be another dry week for photography. I'll keep you appraised of developments.