Blog Content — Gavin Vella

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Woundwort

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Summer Catchup

Think it’s probably time I posted some more images! As always it’s been a very busy year. Working on multiple sights across Wales, bird surveys, raptor surveys, ontop of Dusk Bat surveys, so my Nightjar time this year has been limited. Currently trying to fight thru some health issues also, looking forward to getting some results back from the Doctors after bloods this week. I’ve been using the R5 extensively and recently swapped out my Canon 400 DO ii with the 300 2.8 ii, as despite the fact that the DO was a superb lens, it was missing contrast and most importantly, had some weird ‘bokeh’ which rendered the foreground and background pretty distracting in certain scenarios. It’s a shame, as the lens was super sharp and I will miss it. Once I got the 300 back I was instantly reminded about the contrast and the smooth bokeh. It put me right back to being inspired again, as there’s nothing worse than putting in all the effort, and not getting the results you envisioned. The 300 also has a very ‘collectable’ image, especially wide open, where the colours are some what muted and there is a slight vignette. You see this is some of my images below, like the Nightjar shots and the Fern. They appear dark, some would say even under exposed but this is something I couldn’t even do with the 400 as it didn’t have as good dynamic range. Odd to even use that phrase in a lens but it’s true, each lense renders shadows and highlights differently and with this 300 2.8 you get the best available to modern day optics. Talking about Optics, I’m going to write a review soon on the new Swarovski NL Pure 10x42’s in comparison to my older Gen 1 EL’s. Will explain all in the next post! For now, here’s a collection of my favourite images of the summer, mostly with the macro lens in the Garden! As i’ve been far too busy for proper photography shoots this year. One thing I hope you’ll notice is how vibrant the colours are from the R5, which overall I’m finding has a much more accurate white balance straight out of the camera than the R6 did, which always seemed to be on the warm side.

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Gwent Naturalists

If you’re on Facebook and live in Gwent, you might be interested to join a new group called Gwent Naturalists.

It’s an extension of the Gwent Birders group that has over 600 members so far and every now and again we get questions about butterflies, moths, dragonflies and flowers, which is fine, but it made me realise that we could do with a group that covers more taxonomic groups.

We’re very lucky in gwent to have dedicated naturalists that have spent a life-time studying nature in their respective field. Whether it’s spiders, slime moulds, mosses, micro moths, birds, bats, reptiles, flowers, bees, beetles, you name it, there is somebody out there with the knowledge.
This isn’t to take away from the existing - South East Wales Biodiversity Records Centre group - which I still highly recommend you join.

The Gwent Naturalists group isn’t just a place to share photos and ask for ID’s, I hope that we can use it to discuss conservation topics in our area, organise field events, and generally work together to help encapsulate our knowledge and work together towards a common goal.



My second pair of Nightjars were victim of an egg thief just two days from hatching, so I’m giving them plenty of space as they choose their second location for clutch 2, which is so far looking to be a much wiser choice, in a clear-fell that has much more cover, making the nest less exposed. I did wonder if their first choice was a good one, as it wasn’t far from a major dog walking route, and they did get quite a few close fly-bys from Jays and Great Spotted Woodpeckers, but the list of predators for ground nesting birds is huge, so it’s lucky they’ve adapted to this by not putting all their eggs in one basket, having a second clutch as a backup plan should the first choice go wrong. With the hot weather though, I’ve turned my attention to the vast amount of insects that are now at peak.


I did note 3 Silver-washed Fritillaries on the wing this week at a local woodland which could be a good sign that this species is spreading out. I usually go to the Forest of Dean to get my Silver-washed fix but instead of doing that I’m going to make more of an effort this year to find them on my doorstep. I’ll leave you with this incredibly out of focus, cropped image :D

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