Aimless Wanderings of a Rambler.

For the past week the ponies have been off Bickerton for some much needed maintenance work to be carried out...unsure of the date of their return I ventured out anyway as the weather was good and my new boots needed a good test drive.

As the ponies were said to be off-site until further notice I turned my lens to anything, and everything, else that caught my attention. There seem to be many different species of butterflies around Bickerton attracted by the flowers of blackberry and gorse; I've found photographing butterflies particularly challenging as often I have to turn the auto-focus off and go manual as they like to get into the undergrowth...as soon as I have it in frame and focus it flies to the next flower and I have to chase it to start over. Here are my very few successful shots:

Gatekeeper Butterfly

Peacock Butterfly

The subject being photographed doesn't even have to be moving to be interesting; this old spider web stretched between a tree and bracken added a silvery effect to an otherwise typical woodland shot:

This white bracket fungus also stood out from the more earthly tones of the woodland surrounding it and added a prominent feature in the photograph:

There are many interesting shots to be had wherever you go; so long as you don't just keep your eyes to the path, good photographic opportunities are available everywhere. In the end you are only going to be limited by the range of your lens!

After wandering around for an hour or so I found the ponies; unlike the previous times I was not able to find the large group of six led by Taff, but instead found the two outcast males Jack and Col. They were far off the footpath and I had to traipse through heather being bombarded by grasshoppers which can jump surprisingly high; I'm sure I had one perched on my shoulder at one point! I picked the most open route I could find to minimise disturbance but it was still slow going.
These two are a lot more timid than the larger herd so I had to approach more slowly and announce my presence so as not to spook them. Unlike the larger herd who approach me these two kept their distance, although I was able to get a comfortable ten meters away without any indication of stress which allowed me to get these shots and assess if they were in good health.

 Col is the other grey gelded male; unlike Taff, he has a pink patch running up beside the left nostril which can be seen in the photos. He is dominant over Jack and is also a little more confident around people too.

 Jack, who I call White-Faced Jack, is the only chestnut male. However, as there are two chestnut females he is much easier to identify by his white face. He also has a small part of his mane missing which had to be cut as it was matted and attracting unwanted attention from flies.

Bessie also accompanied me today and found it great fun to bounce through the heather after me like the crazy thing she is!