Pasque Flowers 2

I delayed the RPS Nature group outing from last Saturday with hurricane Kathleen threatened to yesterday when the forecast was for sun and light breeze at the time of choosing. It was actually overcast for much of the day and very breezy but still great to be up on the Heath with the Pasque flowers now out in their thousands (see final images). I decided on a bit of backlighting and concentrating on the various stages in the Pasque flower life from bud to seed head. We were lucky to have two insect models - an Angle Shades moth and a Small Bloody-nosed Beetle. The numbers of flowers is very impressive - probably rivalling 2013 (see here)

Pasque Flowers for Easter

The Pasque flowers are out early on Royston Heath and are there in large numbers. It was a bit windy today for flower photography but I enjoyed trying a few different techniques and also finding some mini creatures - spiders, snails, fly, caterpillar and a Red-tailed Mason bee that makes its nest in snail's shells!

Pasque Flowers Beginning at Royston Heath

The Pasque flowers are just beginning to flower - a bit later than some years but will probably be best around Easter as their name suggests. They are very short so quite a challenge to photograph plus a stiff breeze today. Most are Focus stacks using Fuji X100V and Raynox 250 close-up lens. I find this a very useful high quality combination for flower photography. We found one very small bee - a Lasioglossum species

Royston Wasp and Other Spiders

Great to find four wasp spiders on the Heath today along with other species, including Araneus quadratus with the four spots. Quite a few had caught Chalkhill blues which are abundant at the moment. Very breezy so the focus stacks did not work perfectly. The wide angle with closeup filter gave the best definition.

Delights of Royston Heath

This year the original small colony of Adonis Blue have spread to other parts of the Heath. We visited on a windy day and therefore searched more sheltered leeward side of the hills and found mating pairs. The first three images show different approaches to photographing them 1. Using long telephoto throwing the background completely out of focus; 2. wide-angle lens with close up giving a suggestion of habitat and 3. including all the normal habitat as they generally mate on the ground. In the subsequent images several males 'bombed' the pair wanting to get in on the action. A few Pasque flowers are still in bloom. finally a Hoverfly mimic for Bumble bees.