Dorset 10: Higher Kingcombe Lodge and Lakes

Our stay at Kingcombe has come to an end though my posts for the rest of the trip will continue for a few days more! It is wonderful place to stay for anyone wanting tranquility, lots of wildlife to watch and photograph, very comfortable self-catering or bed and breakfast and very friendly owners (also fishing!!). I went out early on several morning - here a post from one such visit as the mist rises and then dissipates with the rising sun and the colours strengthen and worm in tone. The damselflies and other reed-life covered in dew are a constant challenge! Higher Kingcombe Lodge

Easter Sunday Sunrise

I went on an early walk from home to photograph the full moon setting but it was too misty to see it so I  concentrated on the sunrise, which proved to be a very colourful one!!  The dew on the wheat and flowers added another subject for the walk though meant I arrived back with very wet feet and trousers..

Swans Awake at Welney WWT

We were very fortunate to have a beautiful sunrise for our early visit to Welney Wildfowl Trust reserve at Welney. We arrived just as the sky was lightening with a beautiful pink glow. As the sun came up the colours changed from pink to orange to blue. It was wonderful to see and hear the Bewick Swans as these are so much shyer than the larger noisier Whooper Swans (the two in the foreground of the second image)

Dusk and Dawn at Trowell, Nottinghamshire

I was staying at the Travelodge on the M1 at Trowell and went straight out on foot on arrival back there on Sunday afternoon from the trip to Blacktoft Sands - it was almost dark but managed one photo with the colour still in the sky and a blueish tinge to the snow. The next morning I headed out again before sunrise and took the same scene but now the colours were reversed with some pinkish light on the snow and a blueish sky. The next photos are in time sequence as we got nearer to sunrise. The next set will show the landscape once the sun had risen.

Soft Misty Dawn

As there was an autumnal feel to the dawn yesterday with a soft mist, I visited our local sunflower field This year, it is quite sparse allowing isolation of the individual heads against a soft background. The sunrise itself never quite happened and it then started raining but not before I had played a bit with compositions trying to decide how many trees to include!!

Dawn in the Meadow and Alice Holt Forest

Further images from Wednesday starting with a prebreakfast wander round the meadows at Petersfield. After the visit to Frensham Pond, we moved to Alice Holt forest for a short walk in the conifers. As everywhere else on this trip, butterflies were in very short supply - just a Speckled Wood and Red Admiral.