Greater butterfly orchid with small heath: Orchids

A good wildlife photography day today, first at Ringstead Bay early morning, then with S at Powerstock Common. Some orchids are out early this year - this heath spotted orchid wouldn't normally be out until June. On the other hand, there was no sign yet of any common spotted orchids today - these are normally out at the same time.

This greater butterfly orchid has the added value of a small heath butterfly feeding on it.

I got my new camera back on Friday so I've taken the opportunity to test it on some fairly demanding wildlife shots. It seems to function well now, and I am really impressed with it in telephoto mode. This fox may not be perfectly sharp, but it was a good 50 metres away, with the zoom all the way up to 32x magnification, and the picture has been further cropped on the computer.