Barford birding

A few images from Great Barford bridge. The cropped Grey Wag shot was the best I could get after several minutes of low level stalking. I had hoped for a closer picture - sadly, my efforts were thwarted by the herd of disgruntled cows that chased me, closely followed by the wagtail, out of the field.

More Kites

A few more images of the Watlington Red Kites.

Neighbouring Worlds

A few images of more distant worlds....

A mosaic of the lunar Southern highlands. The planet Saturn imaged back in January 2006, showing subtle hints of cloud belts and the Cassini division in the marvellous rings, and two images of Mars during the 2005 opposition, showing the Northern polar cap and subtle dusky terrain.

A brush with wildlife

A mixture of oil, watercolour and pencil sketches from the paint-box archive....

Farmland

Early morning Yellowhammer showing off a nice profile, taken during a break between sun-showers on farmland in Willington.

Swiftly does it....

My first attempts at capturing these speed racers, and proved quite a challenge to pan fast enough. Images taken at Watlington during breaks in the kite-fest.

Watlington Kites

A rewarding few hours spent at Watlington, Oxfordshire on Monday. With more than 20 kites in the sky at any one time, it was difficult to keep my image count down! These are the first to be processed.

Right place, right time

Dark Green Fritillary, taken at the wonderfully named Sharpenhoe Clappers. Back in the summer of 2007, and requiring no skill on my part, I was fortunate to find the very rare dark form A.aglaja form wimani . Subsequently identified by lepidopterist Adrian Riley, I was honoured when Adrian chose to include the image in his book "British and Irish Butterflies", (Brambleby Books, 2007.)

Early morning dew

Early morning Marbled White, complete with dew drops on the antennae; Small Skipper; Large Skipper and Common Blue.

Close-up's

Two of my favourites; Orange Tip and the wonderful and elusive Purple Emporer, in close-up.

Great Barford in flood

Composite panoramas of Great Barford from the bridge over the Great Ouse.

Flutter-by's

Chalkhill Blue at Barton Hills and Swallowtail from further afield - Pointe du Raz, France. Others - Purple Hairstreak and Large White in Bedfordshire.