Leith Hill and Leith Place NT

A wonderful walk at Leith Hill in Surrey where the bright sunshine accentuated the fresh greens of the trees and ferns and the view from the Tower towards the South Downs was spectacular. After a 7-mile walk in the morning, I spent the afternoon at the very peaceful Leith Place, Ralph Vaughan Williams' home from the age of two till he was 20.

Dragons and Damsels at Paxton Pits

Paxton Pits was alive with Damselflies (Variable and Banded Demoiselles) and Dragons (Scarce Chaser, Norfolk Hawker, nymph case and adult sheltering in the hedgerow). Lots of other insects around - Soldier Beetle, Green-veined Butterfly and Cardinal Beetle.

Insects at Whixall Moss

In the afternoon at Whixall, most of the group on the RPS outing concentrated on the abundant wildlife around the pools by the canal at Whixall. My highlight was this Blue Shieldbug laying eggs on a piece of roof felting used as a ground shelter for reptiles etc. 

My Garden Meadow is Complete

Delighted that after three years effort, I have managed to establish Yellow Ratlle in my garden wildflower meadow. An annual wildflower that’s very beneficial to wildflower meadows as its roots attach themselves to roots of other plants, especially unwanted coarse grasses. Once attached they draw valuable nutrients from the grasses, thus weakening them, reducing the competition, allowing the wildflowers to flourish. At the moment, the meadow is yellow with Buttercups but among these there are Scabious, Bush Vetch, Germander Speedwell and White Campion in bloom. Around the shadier edges and in my separate 'uncut' meadow area, Dusky Cranesbill, Red Campion, Ribwort Plantain, Marguerites and Cow Parsley are putting on great displays

Experimenting with 'Infrared' Filters

 Malcom has kindly lent me some screw-on red filters with different wavelengths to simulate using a converted camera with an infrared- sensitive sensor.. The first six  were taken with a 680nm filter on my Fuji X100V - not a strong infrared effect but able to easily handhold. (1-6: ISO 3200 and the noise has not been removed' 1/30th sec F8). The last image is with the 850nm giving the characteristic white foliage but even at F2 difficult to get enough light to handhold so more trials needed with tripod etc (ISO 3200 F2 1/60th).