Kings Wood Bluebells 2010  | - Click on the image above to view gallery
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A year without a visit to King’s Wood at Bluebell time is unheard of, but this year it happened later in the year due to the winter being so harsh, followed by a rather cool spring. It means that the Bluebells have been at least two or three weeks later than in the last few years. I looked back at when I took last year’s pictures at King’s Wood and it was on the 26th April when they seemed to be at their best. I have in fact made visits to King’s Wood on three different occasions this year, the last being on the 12th May and because it has been a very cool spring they do seem to be lasting a long time, and look like they will be going strong for a couple more weeks yet. I’d taken along four different lenses in my camera bag: my everyday Nikon 18-200 lens, my Nikon 105 macro, my Sigma 10-20 wide angle and also my Sigma 70-300 which also can be used for taking macro shots. All these lenses along with everything else I carry certainly make for a rather heavy camera bag. But I really wanted to have some fun playing around with the lenses and I did use all of them on different occasions which I’m hope shows in the number of different pictures I took.
I find getting pictures of Bluebells that I really like quite a challenge, and the weather this year hasn’t helped that much. On one of my visits this year the forecast promised a much brighter day than we actually got and the really dark grey clouds didn’t encourage me to take many pictures. The light that day meant the Bluebells looked an incredibly dark blue colour, completely different to when the sun shines on them. For me I find Bluebells need some bright sunshine to bring out all the details. On each of my visits the conditions have been different and I find it makes so much difference to the colour in my pictures.
When visiting King’s Wood we park at the end of Mountain Street in Chilham and follow the North Downs Way up to the top of the ridge which leads straight into King’s Wood. It is always a very enjoyable walk at any time of the year but especially when you know the first sight of the Bluebells will greet you once you get to the top of the slope.
A new feature in the woods this year is a recently restored Deer Leap. Its purpose is to allow deer to leap into Godmersham Park, but to stop them returning to the protection of the woods. Fallow Deer are a real problem and cause a lot of damage so their numbers have to be controlled. I have only seen deer on one occasion in the woods as they stay well hidden. On one of the visits we made this year we had a very nice surprise, however. We were enjoying a walk along the North Downs Way as far as Challock when we saw a young Badger running across the path right in front of us before disappearing very quickly down into the sett. As this was in the middle of the day this was a real treat.
One not so welcome bit of wildlife that seems to swarming in huge numbers this year is the St Mark’s Fly or May Fly. They are swarming in huge numbers and are a real pest as you walk through them. Another highlight though and much more pleasant than the flies was, just as I was packing up my bag to go home, seeing a Pheasant making its way through the bluebells. Unfortunately as soon as he saw me he was running away in a way only Pheasants can but I did manage to get at least a couple of pictures before it ran off, which is two more than I got of the Badger.
Bluebells are notoriously difficult for getting the right colour in the pictures, and I spent a long time processing each of the RAW files I took using the Lightroom program I use to try and make them a true representation of how they were when I took the pictures. I could easily make them far more vibrant in colour, but that would be false and it’s something I don’t like to do.
The pictures in the gallery that accompanies this entry come from all three visits and hopefully show the fun I had this year trying to get some different pictures to those I have taken before.
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Dave