THE RAMBLINGS OF A STRUGGLING ARTIST ON LIFE WITH TWO TERRIERS, A PONY WITH ISSUES AND OTHER WILDLIFE AND BIRDS THAT CROSS OUR PATH

1 June 2013

WHAT'S IN THE HEDGE BANK?


Today I decided to photograph the contents of a stretch of Devon hedge bank on the way into town. It's about two miles from home and at least 150m lower (I completely made that figure up), so diversity is much greater. Much as I love the (not so) new camera for its zoom, the macro function is not a patch on my other two Fuji's. It's a bit much to ask the same lens to do both, so I'm probably going to start carrying my little pocket one for close up shots. It never let me down. The only problem is, the card reader for it is not compatible with the new laptop, so I have to download onto the old one which takes twenty minutes to fire up properly and then transfer them via a memory stick. Computers.....grrrr. So, here goes....all three varieties of Vetch refused to be photographed and there were ferns, Hogweed in leaf and many others, but I was getting funny looks from passing motorists; all two of them. 


Shining Cranesbill


Bluebell (with a bit of Red Campion on the side)


Buttercup


Cow Parsley


A Cranesbill of some sort that I can't identify....possibly a garden escapee unless someone knows better?


Cuckoo Flower


Dodgy picture of Bugle


Dandelion


Early Purple Orchid on top of the bank


Early Purple Orchid nearer the ground, suffering a bit from being so close to the road



Speedwell....Germander I think



Ground Ivy


Herb Robert


Pink Purslane


Red Campion


Ribwort Plantain


Violet


Wood Sorrel

How lucky we are to have so many beautiful wild flowers in this country, and this just a fraction of them by a road. This is what lies behind the bank by the way:


Two Wagtails are breeding here and every time I drive over the little bridge over the stream, they flit across the road in front of the car. They are either Grey or Yellow Wagtails but, because of their speed, I can't tell which!

Talking of birds, I managed to get two pretty good pictures of a male Stonechat a few days ago:



It's been a great week with Origami Boy seeing lots of his friends and we're both shattered! Until next time, when normal transmission should be restored, here's Snippet on top of Kestor on Thursday. Have a lovely Sunday. 



40 comments:

  1. Such a lot of flower varieties! I've never seen the bird before but he's a handsome dude. Snippet is the king of all he surveys...if he could see through his fur!
    Jane x

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    1. I do set about it with scissors now and then and perhaps now might be one of those times!

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  2. Lovely photos. I love to see so many different wild flowers in a hedge bank; it's a wonderful sight to see in spring. The little Stonechat is gorgeous, too (as is Snippet!)

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    1. Everything is SO late Wendy. I have pictures of this kind of stuff from mid April from other years. Admittedly, it means we're seeing stuff come out together in a profusion of colour which is nice. I wonder if you're having the same thing where you are.

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  3. You really do have a lovely variety of wildflowers. I grinned when I saw the dandelion--Wanted or not, they really do grow anywhere, don't they?

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    1. I quite like them from a distance dotted in between grass in a meadow, but otherwise, they are the bane of my lawn life!

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  4. Em, you never fail to disappoint with any of your photos. I always love seeing them whatever they are of ... xx

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  5. What are you talking about... I only wish my macro photos were this good !
    I love the violet, I always think of them as my Mum's flower even though she loved roses.
    The Dandelion is beautiful not at all like mine and the bloom reminds me of one of my cactus blooms.

    Good black duggie !

    cheers, parsnip

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    1. I had to weed out a lot of ones where the lens had refused to focus but I couldn't tell without my specs on!

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  6. Fabulous wild flowers, excellent photographer, not going to say any more ;) X

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  7. What a wonderful collection of flowers Em and lovely photos of them. I remember from childhood holidays in beautiful Devon how special the flowers along the roadside looked in springtime. I'm very impressed you saw orchids there too! Great Stonechat photos, I've probably said before that we don't have them in my area :-(

    Snippet was looking very majestic :-)

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    1. The Orchids seem to be spreading very gradually up the lane. A few will appear in a new place each year, which is lovely. I'm looking forward to tussock hopping a bit later in the summer to find the marsh variety!

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  8. Love the flowers, Em. You are lucky to live in such a wonderful part of the country. Don't know if I'm missing something but wouldn't it be easier to invest in a card reader with a suitable slot for your memory card. Then all you do is slip it into the USB port on your new computer - much quicker than using the old one and they don't cost a lot. I bought one on Amazon about 18 months ago for about £10.
    Heather

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    1. Hello Heather,

      I think we may end up doing that of our idea of a home made adapter fails! The 'new' laptop has a slot especially for cards but the little one needs something attached so it doesn't get lost inside....I feel a sellotape creation coming on....

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  9. Stunningly beautiful :) What a great selection of wildflowers. I don't think you can beat a flower hedgerow in May/June. Lovely to see the orchids and the bluebell wood too :) Great Stonechat photos - only ever see those on holiday. Really enjoyed your lovely post :)

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    1. There was a lot of Stitchwort too but the pictures were awful and I couldn't find the one I took a few weeks ago. Never mind....glad you liked them!

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  10. Fantastic flower pics Em, thanks for sharing them. I've just planted a whole load of wild flower types around our pond and can't stop looking at them. Not sure why we buy anything else really!

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    1. I agree. They always work better too. I hardly have anything in the garden that doesn't have a wild ancestor or that I haven't grown from collected seed in the hedgerows.

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  11. This is a wonderful post and very useful, I always struggle with flower identification as some of the pictures in books are not great so thanks for sharing! We have most of these flowers in our hedgerows and banks here too, aren't we lucky to live in one of the most perfect places in the world?

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    1. They can be awful can't they. I often find the flower itself is too small, hence the lack of ID for that Cranesbill; I just can't tell from the tiny pictures.....glad to be of service!

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  12. Wow, they are all gorgeous photos!!!

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  13. Hey Snippet, you and me are King of the Hills this weekend!

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  14. The closeup photos are wonderful! Have you tried to get a USB card reader? I have two, one for my SD/SDHC and another for my XD card.

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    1. I'm glad it's not just me juggling....it's the USB card reader that's not compatible as we were running on Windows XP on the old laptop and Windows 7 on this one. I'm going to have to bite the bullet I think.

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  15. Beautiful wild flower photos! Lovely to see your early purple orchids. I haven`t seen one for years. Our spotted heaths are still not flowering.

    We saw (and heard) several stonechats out on the Forest heathland today, but my camera isn`t up to photographing them with the ordinary lens.

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    1. They're incredibly camera shy aren't they? One of the main reasons for buying this camera was to photographing Stonechats, because I could never get anywhere near them, despite stealth work behind gorse bushes. They're not stupid!

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  16. The roadside banks really are looking wonderful at the moment. great shots.. love the orchids.

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    1. Everything is coming out at once....I'm aiming to get a shot of red, white, blue and yellow all in one fairly tight shot at some point, but I keep forgetting to take the camera in the car.

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  17. Beautiful! I especially like those bluebells.

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    1. Do you have them over the pond? I'm not sure.....possibly a bit dry where you are!

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  18. Your wildflowers are so much further on than ours up here Em. It is nice to see that you call the mauve one 'cuckoo flower' - we always called it by that name in Lincolnshire. Up here it is called 'milkmaid'. There are quite a few flowers that we don't have too although most of them are familiar.

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    1. I'd love to see a post from you of your particular wildflowers Pat. I haven't been up north for SO long, and when I did, I was much younger and much less interested in nature!

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  19. Gorgeous shots as always Em! The wildflowers are beautiful. It always amazes me how quickly things bloom and 'green up' once the weather gets warmer.

    ¤´¨)
    ¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)
    (¸.•´ (¸.•`¤... Jennifer
    Jenn's Random Scraps

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    1. Four weeks ago, it still looked like January in our garden and now it's unrecognisable - wonderful.

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  20. I especially enjoyed seeing your variety of wildflowers, some of which I recognize from years in New England. With both my old camera and the fancy new one, I cannevr be quite sure why some close-ups/macros 'work' and others do not.

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  21. Funnily enough, the Pink Purslane is a US import - I can't remember how long ago - so I would expect that to be among the ones you recognise.

    I think the bigger the zoom in a camera trying to achieve both with one lens, the worse the macro will be.

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