Author: timpad

I’ve been trying to get the Dragonflies with a black background behind them , all you need is for the damn things to land in the right place !
i saw this one and grabbed the camera , thinking it would be gone by the time i’d set up.
it was quite content to sun itself flying off now and then to feed on small flies , but returning to the same spot.

At last , the rains stopped and the suns back out – just in time for Autumn ! i’ve noticed the Dragonflies are now out and about sunning themselves in the afternoon sun and then becoming more active just as the sun dips out of sight.
when i disturbed one , it flew off only to return and land on my shoulder , darting off and returning twice before disappearing into the trees.

With the weather doing its best to look like autumn , the reptiles in the garden are having a tough time , one minute its warm with some sun and a good time for them to sunbathe, soaking up the warmth to allow them to move quickly and feed and the next moment no sun and cold rain cooling them, making them sluggish. 
On the plus side its making getting close to them a bit easier ! These common lizards were basking in a few hours of sun , before the showers moved back in on sunday.

I,ve been playing with my macro lens , i didn’t realise how shallow the depth of field is when using it ,  finding things to practice on is not hard around the garden and opens up a whole new world of monsters in the undergrowth. 

While walking the dog not far from our house a few days ago , i noticed a Male Redstart dart out from under a few rocks on a steep cliff edge, i watched for 20 minutes as he and the female shuttled back and fore feeding young with green caterpillars.
The week before i had seen a number of pairs around the Llangattock area feeding their young and it was nice to see them so close to home and a good opportunity to get some photo’s.