Red Kites at Gigrin.

I spent the afternoon on Monday with friends at the Gigrin Farm Red Kite Feeding centre near to Rhayader in Wales.

There were several hundred kites in the air at the peak feeding time and many others on the ground or in nearby trees.

Photographically the light was pretty good but there wasn't a great deal of blue sky,  often white or grey clouds which wasn't my ideal backdrop.

It is a super place to photograph these birds although isolating an individual bird is often difficult.

There were also lots of buzzards, ravens, mixed corvids and a single grey heron all feeding on the meat put out at the site.

Stepper quarry at the mouth of the Camel estuary near Padstow..... threatened with development!

Sorry to harp on again about the planning application to build in this beautiful spot but I need to draw people's attention to what a fantastic place it is and how it is under immediate threat due to development.
The following photos were all taken in just over an hour this afternoon with almost all the flowers, butterflies and dragonflies photographed within the quarry.
Many of the views are illustrating the path across the fields and down into the quarry which will become the main access to the development and will, I guess, have to carry the lorries and heavy machinery for construction.

The planning application is Cornwall Council PA15/06153 and objections can be made online or by letter or e mail.
It does look likely to be passed as it seems lobsters have a greater importance than all these other inedible things!
Further info is available on my Facebook page or contact me.

If you are concerned then please register this at the Cornwall Council website at http://planning.cornwall.gov.uk
Application number PA15/06153. If you have problems with the website you can e mail to planning@cornwall.gov.uk
Please don't think that our council wouldn't pass such a plan or presume that others will object..... please register your views as soon as possible.
Thanks, Rant over... but as you can guess I feel strongly about some of the development that is happening in our beautiful county!

Brimstone butterflies 2nd August 2015

Male Brimstone butterfly

The original "butter - coloured" butterfly, the Brimstone.

I came across several males and females of this butterfly this afternoon nectaring on several different plants at Bradley Ponds in South Devon.

They were feeding on knapweed, ragwort and fleabane and all looked in good condition so I guess they've just emerged as offspring from the early flying brimstones that were out and about in early spring.

Female Brimstone butterfly