Images free for personal non-commercial use only ©
Dave Henniker Nature page 12
p1 p2 p3 p4 p5 p6 p7 p8 p9 p10 p11
 |
Usually when I see a heron it's poised motionless over water, ready to pounce on a fish. This Grey Heron was having a break from fishing and was standing on the bank of the Logan Burn where it flows into Loganlea Reservoir in the Pentland Hills. | |
 |
It was a windy day and the bird decided it was a good time to preen its feathers which were blowing about in the wind. | |
 |
Its long neck is stretched over to its tail. | |
 |
Now in profile, facing left. Attractive dark patches on its neck above long, decorative chest feathers. | |
 |
Facing away from the camera. White chest feathers being blown across the steely grey folded wing. Its wingspan can reach 2m. More information from Wikipedia. | |
 |
Now it's facing right again, directly into the south west wind. Herons fly with their neck in an S- shape, unlike cranes which have their neck extended. | |
 |
Heron 06 |
We waited to see if the bird would resume fishing but it was quite content to continue preening itself in the long grass. When they're flying, I've seen them being mobbed by crows - which may feel threatened by such a big bird. They aren't fast fliers and crows can give them a hard time. |
 |
A rather more diminutive flying creature, less visible than a heron but the bright blue colour helped. Photographed on the same day in the Pentland Hills near Phantom's Cleuch and Bonaly Reservoir. | |
 |
The species is probably Azure Hawker although the Common Hawker is also largely blue. This seemed to be their day for mating. | |
 |
Another solitary male basks on a rock on the path, | |
 |
The path from Phantom's Cleuch heads north then reaches the fench running south east of Bonaly Reservoir. Dragonflies were mating on the fence wire. | |
 |
The male arches his abdomen. Both cling to the wire. Although they have six legs each (like other insects), they can't walk. | |
 |
I zoomed in a bit closer. | |
 |
The female is green, yellow, brown and black. Her wings are still folded. | |
 |
She's attempted to take off it seems - but the male has got a firm hold. His wings show up well in this shot. Each of his larger pair of wings has one opaque section near the tip. | |
 |
They wiggle about but the male is holding on tight to the wire. | |
 |
This lasts a few seconds... | |
 |
And then they're both stationary again. | |
 |
This butterfly got into our kitchen and settled on this postcard for a while. | |
 |
It folded its wings for a while then later settled on a picture rail on the wall before vanishing. | |
 |
Old Kirk Road 20 1280 x 850 393K |
An insect visits one of the tiny yellow flowers growing beside the path on the Pentland Hills. |
 |
Dew 06 1280 x 1140 254K |
These 5 photos also appear in the Pentland Hills Capelaw page of the website. Lingering mist had condensed into tiny dew drops on plants and spiders' webs. As we climbed the path to Capelaw from the Polo Field/Dreghorn area the morning sun was breaking through. |
 |
Dew 08 1280 x 850 260K |
Horizontal webs were strewn across the grass, smaller and less structured than the usual type. |
 |
Dew 10 1280 x 850 349K |
A classic spider's web built on a gorse bush and festooned with little drops of water. |
 |
Dew 13 718 x 1080 300K |
Two spiders' webs in this vertical shot. The strands of silk are weighed down by their burden. |
 |
Butterfly 1280 x 832 280K |
The mist had gone but it looks as though dampness got the butterfly's right wing partially folded over and stuck down. It had no difficulty flying after its rest on the grass. |
p1 p2 p3 p4 p5 p6 p7 p8 p9 p10 p11 p12