Alittlebitoutoffocus

Alittlebitoutoffocus

As many of you may already know, the weather in the UK has been uncharacteristically warm and dry for the past 2 or 3 weeks. So, about 10 days ago, I thought it was about time I tried my luck again at the Gwaith Powdwr nature reserve. I posted some details and a few pictures last year, but this time I decided to walk there and back from home, a distance of around 7 miles in total.

I had just a little more luck with the dragonflies and damselflies this time, though ‘the big blue one’ never did come anywhere near me to get a picture. 😌

With my apologies, particularly to Brian (of Butterflies to Dragsters), for probably not getting the ids right.

9 responses

  1. blhphotoblog Avatar
    blhphotoblog

    All id’s spot on Mike (Large Red Damsels) they were defo sheep 😁. Looks a nice spot, we haven’t had the weather you guys had I only saw my first Meadow Brown today in the garden!
    Up to Scotland in the Morning, bet it rains! 🙄

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    1. Alittlebitoutoffocus Avatar
      Alittlebitoutoffocus

      Well, I’ll be blowed! (Good guesses obviously – especially the sheep!) I’ve found another spot, just up the back from us where I can get a bit closer to the dragons and damsels, when they stop flying around of course. I’ll be posting pics of that soon. There were Meadow Browns every 5 yards or so down one section of our single track road on the way back from my walk. I lost count of how many I saw. That was last Wednesday. There were several more in our garden today, but I was really pleased to capture a Comma too, which is a first for me around here. 👍👍😊

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
    2. Alittlebitoutoffocus Avatar
      Alittlebitoutoffocus

      P.S. Enjoy Scotland. I hope the midges are not in abundance! 🤞🤞

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  2. picpholio Avatar
    picpholio

    A perfect day for a walk, I hope it was not to hot…. Thanks for the nice pictures.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    1. Alittlebitoutoffocus Avatar
      Alittlebitoutoffocus

      No, it wasn’t too hot. Thanks for your comment Rudi. 👍😊

      Like

      Reply
  3. Jet Eliot Avatar
    Jet Eliot

    I so enjoyed this, Mike. Thanks for the big landscape views, so lovely, and for the butterflies and flowers as well. Interesting information board, too. Cheers, my friend, and thank you.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    1. Alittlebitoutoffocus Avatar
      Alittlebitoutoffocus

      You’re welcome Jet. It’s an interesting area, if only for how they’ve left it to regenerate – quite successfully too! 👍👍😊

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  4. Anita Avatar
    Anita

    You have access to a very beautiful natural area close to where you live. 7 miles means around 11 kilometers roundtrip. Impressive views, nice pictures of animals, plants and insects.
    I feel ashamed to say that I actually did not know about the differences between dragonflies and damselflies. 🥲 It must have been damselflies I showed in my post from our fishpond recently??
    Another thing, how do you make your images so big?? They cover the whole screen which I like. Especially with natural views, it almost feels as if you are there yourself 😀

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    1. Alittlebitoutoffocus Avatar
      Alittlebitoutoffocus

      Thanks Anita. I do my best to make the pictures feel like you’re on the walk, so that’s great!
      I’m no expert, but I think, in general, dragonflies land with their wings spread out, but damselflies (which are mostly a lot smaller anyway) fold them backwards.
      As for the photos, I generally shrink them to save space on WP (as I don’t want to pay for extra storage, though I may have to one day or remove a few old ones, or videos), but when I shrink them I try to make sure they are still ‘full screen’ in the Viewer. I’m not sure what the software is that opens them, as it just says “Photos” when I right click on the image. I presume it’s Microsoft Photo viewer. I make sure the percentage in the top right hand corner is less than or equal to 100%. Ideally it should be in the 90% range to get the smallest or optimum file size, but still a large, full screen image. If I shrink it too far, or crop it so that it’s only a small part of the original photo, the image appears a lot smaller in “Photos” and on the WP gallery. I hope this helps.

      Like

      Reply

Leave a comment