Bradfield Woods

Bradfield woods is a working wood that is unique as it has been under continuous traditional coppice management since 1252, fulfilling local needs for firewood and hazel products. It is one of Britain’s finest ancient woodlands and is a glorious haven for wildlife.

Coppice products from Bradfield Wood are still sold today for thatching and hurdle making. Other products sold from the wood include rustic ash poles for garden structures, bean poles, peas sticks, rotted sawdust soil conditioner and firewood.

After reading the above on the Suffolk Wildlife Trusts Website Matt and I decided to pay this historical wood a visit and with autumn approaching we were hoping to see and photograph some fungi. I'm pleased to say we were not disappointed as we soon saw so many different species and both Matt and I managed to photograph these, one thing that did disappoint us was to see that so many fungi had been destroyed, of course this could only have been caused by senseless idiots kicking them over...what did they achieve from doing that!!!

We spent quite awhile photographing the many dragonflies that were resting on the blackberry bushes...oh those blackberries were so sweet, I'm sure Matt will have a belly ache tonight as he was eating so many...

Whilst taking a slow walk though the woods we were hoping to see one of the many red deer, roe deer or spotted fallow but we were unlucky, perhaps we shall have to arrive at dawn to see these.

If any of you are interested in going to Bradfield Woods (shown as Felshamhall Woods on an OS map) the Grid reference on the OS Landranger 155 map is TL 93581 there is ample parking on-site, Both Matt and I enjoyed our visit so much we are already planning another visit.

A return visit to Redgrave & Lopham Fen

Today Matt and I had a return visit to Redgrave & Lopham Fen, although the weather forecast was intermittent showers and dispite the light not being conducive for photography we decided to give the Fen a look.

On arriving we were welcomed by two friendly volunteers in the visitor centre and seeing it was a bit on the nippy side we decided to have a lovely hot mug of coffee before setting off into the rather windy fen.

It wasn't long before we spotted a Munkjac deer, of course he soon scarpered of into the woods that surrounded this side of the fen, we then came across a very sheltered spot and I soon spotted a red dragonfly in a spiders web, the rush was on to photograph the demise of this insect as it was about to be devoured by a spider...I'm pleased to say Matt got the best shot as all mine suffered from camera shake as I only had a 400 lens attached...(see top of the page for Matt's photograph).

Whilst taking a slow stroll around the fen we saw a kestrel going down for it's prey and on one of the lakes we were lucky to see Kingfisher sitting on a post and a lone Egret unfortunately these were to far away to be photographed.

Another sight to see is the wild ponies that wander the reserve, these have been placed onto the reserve by Suffolk Wildlife Trust to manage the grass etc, whilst we were in one of the wooded areas a small group of these ponies were close by.

By now we were staring to get the lunch box syndrome and we headed back to the Visitor Center for another mug of coffee and an Alder Carr ice-cream, whilst making our way back Matt & I spotted a young Fallow Deer.

Just after this the sky decided to turn a nasty grey colour and just as we sat down to have our coffee the heavens opened and that was the end of our day out on the fen...

Despite not having many photographs that were worth keeping on my return both Matt & I had a very enjoyable day...

Royal Photographic Society Exhibition Acceptance

Although this is not a write up on a visit to a reserve I'm please to announce one of my photographs I have taken whilst on a Suffolk Wildlife Trust reserve has been selected and accepted for the Royal Photographic Societies 2010 International Projected Image Exhibition.

The photograph that was accepted was "Amber in the Making" as you can imagine I am chuffed to bits as is a very prestigious exhibition and to get an acceptance into the Natural History section is beyond some photographers dreams...

Lackford Lakes

I'm sure some of you must have thought I had disappeared as I have not been writing up my Blog, unfortunately I have not been very well for a while and my Nature Reserve visits had been put on hold...

So today it was back to nature photography although I have had to be very careful as my spinal problem is really limiting what I can do, so it was a visit to Lackford Lakes today to see if I could photograph one of the Kingfishers that frequent this old gravel workings that was taken over by Suffolk Wildlife Trust back in 1976.

I must say as a disabled photographer this site is one of the best I have come across for access as the paths are good for wheelchair uses and the visitor centre has an electric motorised chair that can be used for a small donation. Also there is a wheelchair friendly hide...also on site there is an excellent visitor centre where you can purchase different bird feeders and seed also available are hot and cold drinks as well as the usual nature books etc...

Well I'm pleased to say my companion and I did get to see three kingfishers but I'm sorry to say the quality of my shot was not good enough to display.

Despite my disappointment at the poor shot we got to see several species of damselflies, butterflies and moths so all in all not a bad few hours were had...

If you ever fancy a trip out to Lackford Lakes its just of the A1101 on the Bury St Edmund's to Mildenhall Road Map OS Landranger 155...Grid reference TL 803708.