Home & Away

The 'home' bit:

Stourhead, Wiltshire

Robin

Marsh Tit

The 'away' bit:

The Somerset Levels
(1) RSPB Ham Wall

Mute Swan

Tufted Duck

Grey Heron

Great Crested Grebe

Marsh Harrier  ♂

Coot

These images were all taken from the new hide at Ham Wall.  It's called 'Tor View Hide' and is out in the middle of the reed beds on Walton Heath.

(2) RSPB Greylake

Blue Tit

Chaffinch

"Yond Cassius ..." (Julius Cæsar, Act 1, Scene 2, William Shakespeare)

Great Tit

Reed Bunting

Boo!

The following images taken together make up a 360° view from the location of the car park at this reserve.  (They were taken on 16th February 2014)

You can just see the structure of the willow-walk on one of the trails

Southerly with Othery church on the horizon

The entrance to the reserve (bottom left: a footbridge over a rhine)

Picnic area and view across the reserve

Farm on the opposite side of the A361

Farm land adjoining the reserve

A day out in the warm (mostly)

Before the warm bit here are some local images.

'My' Robin at Stourhead

Great Crested Grebe at Steeple Langford

Now into the warm, viz the Tropical House in the Royal Horticultural Society's garden at Wisley, Surrey.  The occasion is a visit during the society's annual butterfly fest.

You have to take pot luck on how many, and of which species, might be flying when you visit.  On my visit I found a limited number of species and the predominant butterfly was the Owl (caligo martia).

Owl Butterfly

Blue Morpho Butterfly

On someone's arm

(wings open)

Achilles Morpho Butterfly

Diadem Butterfly

Tree Nymph Butterfly

Asian Swallowtail Butterfly

... and some of the flora in the Tropical House:

Orchid

Lemon

Before leaving I visited the alpine collections.

All the butterfly images were taken with a Canon EOS 5D MkIII using a Canon Macro lens EF 100mm ƒ2.8L IS USM  and a Canon Macro Ring Lite MR-14EX flash unit.