Paxton Pits Miscellany

Another cool and windy trip to Paxton with 7 CCC members but a few shots to remember the day. Wrens were everywhere, singing their hearts out. There are apparently 14 pairs of Nightingales at Paxton but we only heard (and saw) one pair in the usual spot. An obliging Heron perched fairly close on a branch; not many insects were about but here a St Mark's Fly, Large Red-tailed Bumblebee and a Green Nettle Weevil; there were colourful patches of Common Cranesbill and Ground Ivy. 

Bearded Tits etc at Pensthorpe

We visited Pensthorpe on our way back on Thursday and I spent a long while enjoying the antics of the Bearded Tits. They were busy courting, displaying, collecting nest material etc. The plumages of the male Teal and Ruffs were pristine while the Avocets were busy incubating eggs and changing duty every half hour or so.

Bluebells in Foxley Woods, norfolk

Foxley is Norfolk's largest wood and we walked round most of it to find the bluebells but they were certainly worth it when we found them. Here a selection of other spring flowers in the wood and two different bees showing the variation in size in that insect family. For the records the flowers are Early Spotted Orchid (great number of these), Celandine, Wood Avens, Greater Stitchwort, Red Campion and Lady's Smock.

Windy Skies at Cromer and Holkham Hall

 A few images from a windy day at Holkham Hall and then at Cromer for the low tide. The monochrome images at Holkham were taken with the R72 filter - most had too much flare to be usable but I like images 2 and 3. Rest taken with 10-stop neutral density. All on Fuji XT-1. The skies changed constantly and eventually rain set in which stopped play as impossible to keep rain off the filters in the strong winds . Thanks North Norfolk Photography Club for your hospitality

An Ambitious Project

I had a bit of spare time today as it was much too windy to plant out the delicate bedding plants - today's allotted task - so I decided to set up a website (Ann Miles Nature Photography) to catalog and share my many nature photographs. I hope to find time to regularly add to the collections from past images so that eventually I will be posting new photographs. This is some task and I suspect not going to happen for a year or two!!
Here are four recent photographs from my garden that I like as pictorial images as well as being suitable for identification purposes.

Cambridge and Pakenham Mills with R72 Filter

I experimented with using an R72 (dense red filter) with my Fuji to give a pseudo infrared image while in Paris (http://pin-sharp.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/trees-and-shadows-from-paris.html). I have recently been trying a few further shots first in Cambridge and then at Pakenham Wind and Water Mills on the way back from the EAF Exhibition at Wingfield. I have not yet found how to do any type of satisfactory colour conversion but do like the contrasty monochromes from the files.