Purple; King's Wood, Rammamere Heath and Hitchin Lavender

The woods were warm, yet drenched with rain. There is nothing like the smell of a wet woodland on a summers day. The showers persisted, forcing me to decide between being too hot with a mac on but keeping dry, or getting wet, but staying cooler. The dark brown trunks of trees stood tall against the grey skies, the ferns dominated the woodland floor, engulfing the trees in waves of vivid green.

King's Wood

Walking through the woods, not a person to be seen or heard. A muntjac, feeding in the undergrowth, hears me at the last minute. Deer are acutely adapted to sensing predators, and have extremely good senses of smell, vision and hearing. Imagine having letter box pupils and being able to see 310' degrees, twist your ears to hear in all directions, and smell nine times better than any human. They really are incredible animals.

Amongst the woodlands, on the banks of the hillsides, small clearings in the woods allowed patches of heather to grow well. A beautiful pale shade of pink and violet flowers, with an almost silver appearance when caught by the light in the right way. A wonderful summer flower, providing a feast for many passing butterflies, moths and bumblebees!

A spinning abstract of the heather

Bee on Heather

By now, the occasional break in cloud and the showers allowed shafts of light to cut through the tree-top canopy, lighting up grasses like golden fireworks unleashed in the night of the trees' shadows.

Grass catching the light

Large clearings around the site provided great habitat for numerous other species. I imagine it to be a good site for reptiles, with plenty of open south facing banks and lots of cover in the form of long grasses, log piles, and burrows. Plenty of crickets and grasshoppers for the odd snack as well. Whilst on the subject of insects - the butterflies were incredible too! My first small copper of the year so far, speckled wood, silver washed fritillary and common blue. As I sat in the heathland enjoying the warmth of the midday sun, the occasional dragonfly joined me to rest on the open branches of logs and twigs. 

A male Common Darter (welcome to corrections!)

Silver washed fritillary

Common Blue female

Hitchin Lavender. I had driven past this place on numerous occasions, and often wondered what it was like having seen the classic photos of rows and rows of deep purple lavender, leading their way up the hillside into the skyline. Initially, I felt somewhat disappointed by its size, after envisioning endless purple in all directions, the large field of lavender was bordered by fields of grass and crops. Although I can not deny how awesome the field is...

Man picking lavender

As soon as I stepped amongst the lavender, sheer joy at the sight of thousands of insects overwhelmed me. Bumblebees, butterflies, moths and flies feasted on the nectar of the lavender. Swallows cut across the tops of the plants catching insects on the wing. The sound of the constant hum of bees broken only by the tiny winged bodies and red throats of swallows zipping past at high speed. Interestingly, bumblebees used to originally be called humblebees because of the loud humming sound they make when they fly...

Bumbles in the lavender

Common Blue

It takes an awful lot for me to like any of my photos. But the next photo is terrible. I could have pretended to try and capture the spirit of butterfly watching, when often you get a blurry flutter disappear into the distance. But this is my best attempt at photoing the beautiful clouded yellow butterfly, as it was carried in the wind across the tops of the lavender. It stopped to rest once, but not for long enough. Rachael described it as looking like 'a yellow piece of tissue caught in the wind'.

Clouded Yellow impersonating yellow tissue

Small tortoiseshell. What a beautifully and intricately designed butterfly. The blue scales that line the outer edge of its wings are really emphasised by the perfectly complimentary orange colours that dominate the wings. A real stunner!

Small Tortoiseshell 

I was really impressed with both the King's Wood and Rammamere Heath Wildlife Trust site, and Hitchin lavender. The lavender providing the foundations of a wonderful food chain, from plant to the insectivorous predator the swallow. Plus I got to take a bag of lavender home with me as well, of which I shall leave in my car in an attempt to mask its bad odours... Thank ya'll for reading, and keep enjoying this wonderful summer as best you can ! 

Bluebells, Butterfly on a Bluebell-end, and a Newt...

While the bluebells are in full bloom, after much delay, I thought I would post a few bluebell photos. Some are from a recent trip to Ashridge with Ian the Whipsnade warden. The wood here is renowned for their bluebells. And quite right too!

Ashridge Woods

Bluebells!

And what is a visit to woodland without an attempt at some blurry shots... 

Capturing the mood of the place and all that photographer's spiel... Who really cares!? It is either a good photo, or a load of crap. Whether it took a minutes work, or hours or days...

Semi-blurry, semi-moody, semi.

And the following is what happens when Rachael gets involved with the editing! Despite looking completely unnatural, I actually quite like it...

Before...

After! The artist within.

 A small white butterfly, clumsily lounged around in the back garden one early morning. Shame the end of the bluebell it is perched belongs to the non-native species.

Small white on a Bluebell-end

Close-up: Small white

Sky and Haz joined me for a stroll around the bluebell woods in Chrishall...

Sky charging through the bluebells

Bells of blue

After helping out on great-crested newt surveys in Marston, and surveying new ponds in the area for the GCN project, and having no luck with any amphibians what-so-ever, it was a bit of a surprise to find this little critter at the top of our pond-less garden.

Juvenile smooth newt

I love newts! Cracking little animals, with a wonderfully interesting life-cycle. Hatching from eggs with gills to absorb oxygen, metamorphosing into air-breathing miniature versions of their adult form, and then growing into handsome adulthood. This guy looked like a juvenile smooth newt. Wonderful.

Signs of Spring, a Barn Owl, and the Skinless Shrew...

I lay in bed thinking. The half moon glows through the open curtains, faintly lighting my room. I wonder whether the great hunter has had any success since our meeting a few hours before. I wonder if it is still quartering the fields, perfectly focusing its senses onto finding its prey. Its deep steady wing beats as it silently moves through the air. Suddenly, the owl banks, spreading its wings. It sweeps sideways and plummets into the reedy undergrowth. Effortlessly, it lifts itself up, with a small mammal hanging in the grasp of its talons. There is something magic about the Barn Owl. I stumbled across one whilst I walked with Ellie at dusk earlier in the day. Initially, I had been enjoying the partial cloud cover, as the setting sun lit their undersides with pale pinks and deep oranges. The air was still. And the scent of river water hung in the air. 

The sun begins to set over the Ivel

Hanging over the River

And then, the Barn Owl. Impossible to miss; with their huge wingspan, bright white and a steady flight. I caught a glimpse as it dived for prey. Missing after its first attempt, the owl took a second dive only seconds after its first. Its moments like this where the excitement, adrenalin and pure joy at such an encounter takes over. I crouched myself into the ditch, no longer worrying what people might think coming across a man crouched in the reeds, and watched as the owl turned and flew straight towards me. I can be fairly self-conscious sometimes, especially nowadays. It can not always look good, creeping around bushes with a camera in hand. Thoughts of having my photo library searched by police to prove that I was not photographing the school kids in the playground, but instead the charms of goldfinch feeding in the hedgerows, occasionally happen. My mind digresses, as it often does.

The Barn Owl after two unsuccessful dives

The owl then crossed the river, and disappeared beyond the woodland. Continuing on its quest to sustain its bodies energy demands. Later on, from the ditch beside the track, no more than three or four feet away, the owl lifted itself up and flew away, before turning across the field and, once again, disappearing into the diminishing light. Incredibly, a Barn Owls sense of hearing is so good, that they can catch small prey in total darkness, without the need for their vision (which also happens to be excellent as well). One ear is positioned slightly higher than the other, a bit like Sloth from the Goonies, to enable them to pinpoint sounds exactly. Although, I do not think Sloth benefited in the same way...

Into dusk

Hunting at dusk, under the watchful eye of the Moon - about 384,000 km away

Snowdrops. Or snow piercers as they are known in France. A sign that spring is soon to be arriving here in the UK. Mistakenly thought to be British, these flowers are non-native invaders, thought to have been brought over from mainland Europe in the sixteenth century.

Piercing their way through the Earth

Like an army of small spears, the flowering stalks grow upright in clusters spread across woodland floor.

Drops of 'snow'

Eventually, the flower heads open up and drop. Hanging in a sober fashion, they carpet the woodland floor with bright white. And, despite being non-native, they are a very attractive plant that lifts the British spirit. They are a sign of brighter, warmer and longer days, with an air filled with the sex driven sound of bird song. Already excited!

This woodland has been well and truly pierced

Making the most of the recent sunny weather, here are a couple of shots walking in the river with Sky...

Trying to hunt moorhen, like something out of The Deliverance...

Light on the river

The Barn Owl seems to be reliably hunting the same patch, and I hope to return in the days to come. I promised some photos of the taxidermy effort of the shrew I found whilst walking Sky. Instead of posting them here, I have decided to dedicate this blog to all things wild and alive; and all things dead and taxidermy here:  http://tomstaxidermy.blogspot.co.uk/.

Also, it was National Nest Box Week recently. Check out the website http://www.bto.org/nnbw/index.htm, and give some birds a safe place to lay some eggs this year !