Butterflies At Waresley Wood

I recently took a trip to Waresley wood in search of butterflies.  I found good numbers, but not a great variety of species. My best find was a group of Peacock butterfly caterpillars munching on a patch of nettles.  They were tricky to photograph, but I love the back-lighting on this first shot.

Orchids

The other weekend I went out looking for orchids.  Here what I found.

 Bee orchid

 Pyramidal Orchid


















 



Common Spotted Orchid

Man Orchid (a little past its best)

 

Sunny Evening Infrared

These were taken on a sunny evening last week, in Riverside Park in St Neots.  I liked the way the light was coming through some of the trees, and there were plenty of, socially distanced, people around to add some interest. 

As an experiment, all of the images were adjusted and colour converted using DxO Photolab, instead of Lightroom and Photoshop.  I found that using the colour wheel in DxO for the colour swapping was a little easier and more controllable than the channel mixer in Photoshop.  At some point I will do a side by side comparison of the same image converted the two different ways to see which looks best.

 

Dragonflies at Paxton

All but one of these images were taken on one patch of brambles.  It was lit by the morning sun and a number of dragonflies were using it to warm up.

Top to bottom these are:
    a Broad Bodied Chaser,
    2 of the 4 Norfolk Hawkers I found,
    a Scarce Chaser Four-spotted Chaser (thanks Ann for putting me straight on my chasers),
    a Banded Demoiselle (found a short distance away from the others).

 

Return to Paxton Pits

With the slight easing of lockdown restrictions, I have started visiting Paxton Pits.  All of the hides are closed off, so I have been looking for insects.  On my first couple trips, I was mainly seeing small damselflies, but I did find a Scarce Four Spotted Chaser.

  

Cow Parsley with a Lensbaby

The cow parsley on the bank behind my house has now all gone to seed.  But a couple of weeks ago, when still at it's best, I shot it in morning light with my Lensbaby lens. 

 

A Little More Infrared

A small collection of infrared images.  The first three were taken on the bank behind my house.  The second three feature a couple of trees I have found on my walks.