Woodland Birds

 A selection of the birds feeding and singing in the car park. It rained on and off while taking these and the light was poor so 6,400 ISO for many with noise reduction applied. Although I have photographed Chaffinches before, I have never noticed the black feather frill above the beak.The Blackcap was very vocal. Apparently males will sing even when incubating - this one shows his brood patch.

Cowslip, Lady's Smock and Ransoms

The spring flowers are at their best at the moment so I spent a bit of time over the last few days trying to get shots that give a feeling of their beauty. The first, second and seventh images are focus stacks, the rest single exposures in various light conditions. The Cowslips attract a lot of insects including greenfly in the first image and Bibio flies in the last two. 

Insect Life in the Comfrey

The sunshine yesterday brought out a variety of imsects and spiders to bask on the comfrey leaves including the Green Nettle Weevil, various fly species (House Fly, Female Phasia hemipera, Scorpion Fly), a Wolf Spider, Plant Bug, Scarlet Tiger Caterpillar, a Small Spurwing May Fly and a Stone Fly

Find the Dipper

Spent an hour or two yesterday marvelling at the camouflage of the Dipper in a sunlit stream, its feathers echoing the ripples in the water. This bird was very busy feeding youngsters under the bridge I was standing on.

Ducklings and a Mistle thrush fledgling

Granville Country Park, Shropshire

 Granville is a large and wildlife-diverse nature reserve. Nature is reclaiming it after centuries of industrial activity, which finally ceased when Granville, the last deep mine in the county, closed down in 1979, bringing to an end more than 700 years of coal mining in the area. The trees looked magical in the shifting light yesterday.