Higher Hyde Heath

Visited the DWT reserve at Higher Hyde Heath on the 17th June.  The weather was warmish and dry, so a good opportunity to find some bugs out and about.  I walked around the top pond, which unusually for this place had fair amount water in it in June, and in the bracken and grasses there were several damselflies.  I was particularly pleased to see ( a new to me species ) the blue-tailed damselfly.  I got a couple of macro shots of it, including this first shot which is a 5 image stack to get all of the damsel in focus, and keep the background nicely blurred.

5 Image Stack of a Blue-tailed Damselfly. Taken on Canon 50D with Canon 100mm F2.8 USM Macro Lens.  ISO 200 F5.6 1/80.  Natural Light on Tripod.

The next image is just a single shot again of the same Blue-tailed Damselfly.

Blue-tailed Damselfly. Taken on Canon 50D with Canon 100mm F2.8 USM Macro Lens.  ISO 400 F4 1/400.  Natural Light on Tripod.

There were lots of Azures about to – this one I found posing on some bracken.

Male Azure Damselfly.  Taken on Canon 50D with Canon 100mm F2.8 USM Macro Lens.  ISO 160 F5.6 1/80.  Natural Light on Tripod.

And finally I was also lucky enough to get this Green Hairstreak Butterfly also hoping around on the bracken.

Green Hair Streak on Bracken. Taken on Canon 50D with Canon 100mm F2.8 USM Macro Lens.  ISO 400 F7.1 1/640.  Natural Light.

Map of Location

Small Car Park is on site.