Tuesday 20 May 2014

Skomer flowers

The flowers are quite spectacular at the moment, the Bluebells are going over, but the campion is in full flower producing swathes of pink or white flowers. I should probably try and get some photos of puffins in the flowers really, but I’ve been leaving my camera behind recently whilst going around my study sites in the name of reducing the weight in my backpack!
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Sea Campion
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Pink Campion and Bluebells
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Pink Campion at South Stream
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Ladybird larvae? 'Glow worm' larvae.
I found this larvae on the path, and took a few photos and some video of it using macro extension tubes so that I could get really really close. I think it’s a ladybird larvae but I’m not too sure. I’ll have to see if I can find out.
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More Campion
The hairs on the campion work well with a backlight giving a glow to the edges, the young stems and leaves also seem to glow in the light.
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Path through the Bluebells, this is one of the walks I take to a study site.
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Watching sunset on the way home.
Heading back from a study site late in the evening there was a beautiful sunset. Sophia and Julie (two of my colleagues) didn’t realise they were still in the photo, I decided they add a “this could be you here” feel. There are lots of filters available in Lightroom and on smartphone apps so I have been experimenting a little with them.
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Using a creative filter

Saturday 10 May 2014

Leucistic Puffin

The main site for visitors to view the puffins on Skomer is at The Wick. There is a good path, and a rope down each side to try and dissuade people from getting too close and putting a foot through a burrow roof. The puffins come very close, and will even at time pull at your shoe laces

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This is what a puffin usually looks like, but every so often you get plumage variations, leucism, where the cells responsible for producing melanin are absent, so the feathers are white. This is different to albinism which is caused by a genetic mutation meaning the bird or animal is unable to produce any melanin pigments.

Even though it looks ‘a bit odd’ I think it looks really interesting. I’ll have to keep an eye out to see whether it gets a mate this year or not.

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