Wharfedale Wildlife Weekly (27th May 2013)
Burley in Bloom
Burley in Wharfedale was looking "bloomin" good last week; the sun came out, which meant the flowers came out, which meant the butterflies and insects came out too!
Much of my attention was drawn to the Sun Lane area. The bluebells and flowering garlic found in the wooded areas of Sun Lane Nature Reserve are looking fantastic and well worth a visit. Sun Lane itself seems to be attracting a number of butterflies to the hedgerow boundaries that run alongside the road. I seemed to spend, or rather waste, a lot of my time running around chasing butterflies, trying to capture them with my lens, which caused much amusement to passers by!
Here's the highlights from my natural observations of the last week:
Orange tips, cabbage whites, speckled wood and peacock butterflies (Sun Lane Hedgerow)
Buzzard gliding over Sun Lane Nature Reserve
Bull finch opposite the feeders at Sun Lane Nature reserve. Got a really close view of this stunning bird but it was too obscured by leaves and branches to get a good photo!
A fledgling which I think is a mistle thrush (see below)
For the most part, it's been a pretty awesome week, here's my favourite pics from it:
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Stood Up at Golden Acre Park, Leeds
5am on a Saturday morning in Leeds (sober) is quite a sight. Driving past the station reveals an eclectic mix of people: party goers, big drinkers, workers, deliverers, travellers and me, a photographer in search of some golden light!
I was looking to expand my folio with some garden and flora photographs at Golden Acre Park. Dawn is a great time to photograph plants and flowers, as you get that low, warm coloured light which cuts across the land, casting harsh shadows and exposing patterns normally invisible when the sun is high. Sunrise can also reveal natural wonders, like dew or a frost, which can make the morning's battle to get out of bed all the more worth while. On this occasion however there was no dramatic sunrise or golden bursts of light. It just got light from behind thick cloud.
To say I wasn't slightly miffed by the unrewarding nature of the weather would be a lie! But this was the situation and I had to make do, photographers often dismiss the 'flat' light of a cloudy day, but the soft light can be used just as creatively. I walked around Golden Acre Park and got absorbed in the abundance of beautiful flowers, soon forgetting the disappointment of the sun's no show!