Cornwall rock

For the second week we booked a cottage in the hamlet Carnhill Green, Cornwall. I walked every day a part of the 630 mile SWC path, a perfect way to enjoy the scenery, coastal wildlife, and heritage (from stone circles to 18th century copper and tin mines) of the wonderful Cornish coastline.
Many rocks along this coast have names, here two from St. Ives Bay: Strap Rocks (top) and Magow Rocks (bottom). The last picture, with Godrevy lighthouse in the background, is taken 45 minutes after sunset. They say the light in St. Ives is different, that’s why this little town attracts so many artists. I fully understand and agree.

* Canon EOS 5D Mark II with 17-40mm/f4 @ 17mm; ISO-200, f10, 1/100s; polarization filter; hand held.
* Canon EOS 5D Mark II with 17-40mm/f4 @ 20mm; ISO-100, f10, 20s; from tripod.

Avalon

This year we went to England in the summer holiday, somehow the ancient mother of West Europe. The first week we stayed in Glastonbury, visiting a girl friend. I spent quite some time in the Sommerset Levels (a.k.a. the Avalon Marshes), a vast area of low lands comprised of Shapwick Heath, Ham Wall and the Westhay Moors. This picture is taken in Ham Wall; the cone-shaped hill in the background is Glastonbury Tor. Somewhat later this evening I observed a hunting Barn Owl (Tyto alba/Kerkuil) for about half an hour, catching a vole just 10 meter in front of me (unfortunately I took only a wide-angle lens this evening grrr $%@#*).

* Canon EOS 5D Mark II with 17-40mm/f4 @ 30mm; ISO-400, f9, 1/50s; 2 stop ND gradient filter; hand held.

Newborns

Nightjar ♀ keeping her 2 one-day old chicks (not visible) warm. The partly closed eye shows that the bird is at ease; it enhances her camouflage even further. At 22h30 PM ♂ and ♀ start to feed by turns; while one parent is out, catching moths, the other parent keeps the pulli warm. (A colleague nature photographer told me that 10 days later 2 healthy juveniles left the nest site).

* Canon EOS 5D Mark II with 500mm/f4 IS; ISO-800, f7.1, 1/60s; in hide, from tripod.

Eifel butterflies

I joined Arie Ouwerkerk, Kees Ouwerkerk, and Iolente Navarro on a short butterfly trip to the Eifel mountain range in western Germany. Besides many Blue-spot Hairstreaks (Satyrium spini/ Wegedoornpage), shown above, we find a.o. a few worn Apollo’s (Parnassius apollo/Apollovlinder) of the subspecies vinningensis.

* Canon EOS 5D Mark II with 100mm/f2.8; ISO-400, f6.3, 1/200s; -0.3 stop; hand held.

Latecomers

Photo 6: Such an action shot is what I longed for. All is well that ends well. The breeding bird of photo 5 is now feeding one of the chicks.
Together with these 2 latecomers, 6 pairs produced an offspring of 14, all-in-all not a bad result.

* Canon EOS 7D with 500mm/f4 IS and 1.4x; ISO-400, f7.1, 1/800s; -0.3 stop; from tripod.