BACK TO ORCHIDS

After a very successful tour of Estonia looking at orchids and mammals and a few birds too, it was back to reality, well almost.
Estonia news will follow soon.
Quite surprisingly I found myself doing an orchid tour at this late date. Very successful it was too with 15 species recorded and I could have found another three had I bothered. So 18 at the end of June was unexpected to say the least.
Below are some pictures of what we saw today.

 Late Spider Orchid, notice the difference in colour and pattern.

 Albino Fragrant Orchid. Many of these about this year.

 This diminutive  orchid can be hard to find but this year some were several inches high. A good crop of more than 20 plants were found.

 Spotted Orchid in many shades and shapes

 A very dark Fragrant Orchid

 Spotted Orchid

 Lizard Orchid

Other species found today were Bee, Man, Pyramidal, Lady, Fly (gone over now), Monkey, Greater Butterfly, Twayblade, Broad-leaved Helleborine (just in bud only) and White Helleborine.
Other possibles today could have been Marsh Helleborine (in bud), Southern Marsh and Birds Nest Orchid, had we had more time.
Butterflies included Speckled Wood, Common and Adonis Blue, Painter Lady and Red Admiral, Large White, Ringlet, Large Skipper and Heath Fritillary (about 20).
A fantastic day out.

 

KENT ORCHIDS

 

A  tour of East Kent produced a number of species of orchids. Some examples are shown here. Others seen were Spotted Orchid, Southern Marsh Orchid, Lizard Orchid, Broad-leaved Helleborine, White Helleborine, Marsh Helleborine, and Twayblade. Most of these were not yet in flower. Flowering period has been delayed by two to three weeks due to the cold spring, particularly the plants on the coast.

However we had a great day out. The highlight being a magnificent display of Lady Orchids in all variety of colours.

Butterflies seen on the day included Duke of Burgundy Fritillary, Green Hairstreak, Dingy Skipper, Orange tip, Brimstone, Large and Small White

 

 

 

Greater Butterfly Orchid

 

Lady Orchid

 

Lady Orchid

 

Man Orchid

 

Birds Nest Orchid

 

Monkey Orchid

 

Green-veined Orchid

 

Early Spider

 

Early Purple

Fly Orchid

 

Green-winged Orchid

 

 

 

 

Taken with a 400mm lens

DEPTH OF FIELD CALCULATOR

Google Depth of field calculator, type in your equipment etc and it calculates your depth of field.
Quite useful for close-up photography

Camera, 5D111
Focal length (mm)  400
Selected f-stop   f22
Subject distance  2m


Calculate

 Subject distance  2 m

Depth of field
Near limit  1.99 m
Far limit  2.01 m
Total  0.03 m

In front of subject  0.01 m (50%)
Behind subject  0.01 m (50%)

Hyperfocal distance  236.1 m
Circle of confusion  0.03 mm

 

 

ICTERINE WARBLER

 

 

 

 

 

An Icterine Warbler was found this afternoon at Sandwich Bay. It was quite vocal and although not too difficult to find, it was not easy to get a close photo as it stayed a safe distance at all times. Here are my efforts though. Nice to see some sun at last as well.

Icterine is a scarce spring migrant at the Bay and possibly a little more common in autumn when young ones cross the Channel from Scandinavia and northern Europe on their way to Africa for the winter.

 

LITTLE OWL

 

 

 

 

Testing out the new camera, Canon D5mark111. So far so good.

Very dark conditions with drizzle at times. Photos taken on high ISOs.

DUSKY THRUSH in Margate cemetery

 

What a treat. A first record for Kent and about the 10th for the UK I'm told.
There were bucket loads of birders there, some of whom had travelled many miles.
I would like to have got better pictures but could not get any closer because o the number of people there. Probably best to be there on your own, but then you have to find the bird first. Well done Steve for finding it.

  

  

 

Turdus eunomus has been split from  Turdus naumanni (Naumann's Thrush) which we were fortunate to see in Bhutan only a few weeks ago where too it is quite a rare bird.