Dorset - Chesil Beach (30/05/2023)

Back from Dorset but still lots to process and record on my Blog (aka diary!!). I wanted to visit Chesil beach as I always find it a wonderful mixed wildlife area and was rewarded with insects, flowers and birds - here only a sample. The skylark had a very battered tail presumably as a result of ground nesting in a very rough terrain. Quite a few butterflies including mating Common Blues and lots of Bee Orchids, Broomrape and Wild Gladioli.

Spiders and Damselflies at Sunset 2

Another clear sunset so out round the lake this time using a ring flash to illuminate the foreground - Common Blue Damselflies and the Long-jawed spider.

Spiders at Sunset Part 1

 So far dawn has not been suitable for macro photography by the fishing lakes as there have been strong winds but a couple of evenings have been great for sunset photography. Here a selection of spider images incorporating the sunset from Thursday evening. These were without flash fill in. Part 2 from Friday used fill-in flash.

Pondlife at Mapperton, Dorset

Yesterday morning, we visited Mapperton Gardens on our way to Kingcombe and spent a long while photographing the various animals on and under the water including Water Boatmen sculling around, a Diving Beetle larva and  Pondskaters on the surface. Most of the time it was trying to catch the newts as the came up to the surface- both Palmated newts and Smooth Newts plus a large number of Toad tadpoles 

Dorset Sunset at West Bay

We made an excellent choice for a venue to watch the sun set yesterday with the golden cliffs to east and rocky promontaries to the west. Taken on the X100V with characteristic Fuji colours though pretty true to my eye. Images in chronological order