Kilwood Reserve
Visited the Dorset Wildlife Trusts Kilwood Reserve on the Saturday before England’s debacle against Germany in the World Cup. How depressing was that match ? (and the tournament come to think of it!). Still enough digression, onto the visit.
This was the first time I’d visited this reserve, and did so on the hope of catching some dragonflies and damselflies on camera, after being recommended it on UKdragonflies.com. There’s very little parking at the site, in fact there’s no car park, so it’s roadside parking on the country lane. However the venue did not disappoint with lots of damselflies and dragonflies about. I walked through this reserve and it seems to join another wildlife reserve of Norton (an HCT reserve). Over the two of them there are several old clay pits where the insects can be seen. Being heathland and woodland coppice it’s also good for other insects and butterflies. I photographed my first Large skipper of the year, as well as some damselflies.
The shots below were all taken on my Canon 100mm Macro Lens, at near wide open aperture. All shots used Natural Light only, something that’s quite rare for me to do this year with insects, mainly as I’ve been trying to experiment with flash to get it to look like natural light in the field.
This first shot is of the Large Skipper – Ochlodes faunus. Taken at F3.2
Canon EOS 50D (100mm, f/3.5, 1/2500 sec, ISO400)This shot of a damselfly was taken at wide open on my Canon 100mm Lens at F2.8
Canon EOS 50D (100mm, f/2.8, 1/1000 sec, ISO400)This another shot of the same damselfly was taken at wide open on my Canon 100mm Lens at F2.8
Canon EOS 50D (100mm, f/8, 1/250 sec, ISO400)This shot of a damselfly was taken at on my Canon 100mm Lens at F3.5
Canon EOS 50D (100mm, f/3.5, 1/1250 sec, ISO400)Lastly this dragonfly was taken at F2.8 (Wide Open) on my Canon 100mm Macro Lens
Canon EOS 50D (100mm, f/2.8, 1/6400 sec, ISO400)Map of Location
This is the entrance to the reserve.
