On the trail of the ancients and a new tick...

It's been an absolute belter of a week - sun has shone and everything really burst into life...the usual suspects have made an appearance...

brimstone...

green-veined white...

holly blue...

one of the hoverflies...

orange tip...

They all came out and enjoyed the sun (even if the wind could be chilly at times). Although I have been out shooting everyday - over 1000 images by Friday and still more to shoot on Saturday - the highlight was a trip to Bradfield Woods National Nature Reserve in Suffolk - a gorgeous remnant of ancient woodland - alive with bird song and carpeted with wild flowers...

bluebell...

early-purple orchid...

goldilocks buttercup...

oxlip - the star of the trip...very rare in the wild and restricted to a handful of woods in the Cambridgeshire, Essex, Suffolk area...a new species for me so it was duly ticked...

sedge...

greater stitchwort...

water avens...

wood sorrel...

wood spurge...

yellow archangel...

A general view give an idea of what my "office" looked like that day...

I only had a limited time out there as I had to return to pick up my son from school - so it was a race round the wood to shoot as many species as possible...consequently I missed herb Paris and green hairstreak but there will be other years...

At the beginning of the week I ventured back to the ancient meadow just outside Ely...again species were bursting with life...

adderstongue...

ash flowers...

cleavers...

dandelion...

green-winged orchid...

nursery-web spider...

pond sedge...

cowslips abound...

Of course I have been regularly updating my Facebook page...and my Flickr page and have also been submitting to  Dreamstime...However, I have started to supply another agency this week - Pickfair - so if you feel so inclined you can browse and buy my images there as well...Six new sales at the end of the week was encouraging...let's hope for more of the same...

I hope you all have a good week...see you for the Bank Holiday...

Toodle-pip...

Oh to be in England...

...now that April's there...nobody could have put it better...in England...Now! what a glorious start to the months of Spring...it may of course go horribly wrong, but at the moment we have this...

or this...

maybe this...

or possibly this...

...because wherever you look stuff is growing or flying or singing or running or swimming...everything has now woken up and the world is alive again (well this part of it anyway)...isn't it great to see colours again...

or things moving...

or maybe just resting...

my favourite time of year...spring...

I have been working on a new technique for insect photography...the butterfly and bee-fly images above are the products of this...the technicalities are this...instead of using my 100mm macro lens for insects (which I always did in the past) I have taken to using either my 80-200mm f2.8 AFD ED or my 300mm f4 AFD ED but coupled with an extension tube. This is a cylinder of metal that fits between the lens and the camera body - it has no glass, it merely serves to move the lens away from the sensor...the result is that the lens can no longer focus on infinity BUT will focus closer than normal. The advantage is...if you look at the image of the peacock butterfly above...to take this with my 100mm macro lens I would have had to have been with in a foot of the insect to fill the frame...this would have disturbed the individual but would also have cast my shadow over the insect. By using the 80-200 at 200mm plus the extension tube, I was well over 4 feet from the butterfly reducing the risk of disturbance plus no shadow...it is a technique I shall be working on from now on...

And so back to the images...what else have I found?...

apple blossom...

hoverfly on blackthorn...

hoverfly on lady's smock...

grab shot of a green woodpecker...

I have been taken with the glorious boughs of blackthorn...against the sky in full sun is is a wonderful sight...

BUT...in addition to all this bounteous nature I also did a family portrait shoot...weather was still kind and the family were excellent to work with...

At the end of the week I took my first trip of the year to my local wild flower meadow - I have to walk along here...

The meadow is virtually management free apart from a mowing regime to keep the nutrient levels low...at the moment it is just coming into blossom so species are few...what I did find was...

cowslips...Primula veris...love seeing them in wild flower meadows...

field wood-rush Luzula campestris below...so-called Good Friday grass although it isn't a grass...

very nearly in flower...green-winged orchid Anacamptis morio...looking forward to next week...!

And finally to Saturday and a brief trip to Norwich and the UEA - great campus (at least in spring sunshine) and some cool natural history as well including one of my favourite species...

moschatel - Adoxa moschatellina - great little plant of woodlands...

the river Yare...almost wild...almost...

and finally...the fungus chicken-of-the-woods Laetiporus sulphureus...

And that is that for this week...hope it's a good one coming up for you...keep up with me at the usual places...

Toodle-pip...