{"id":1083,"date":"2008-03-02T20:03:30","date_gmt":"2008-03-02T20:03:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/archives\/1083"},"modified":"2013-11-22T22:44:56","modified_gmt":"2013-11-22T22:44:56","slug":"wakehurst-place-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wakehurst-place-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Wakehurst Place"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Wakehurst Place is part of the Royal Botanical Gardens (as is Kew Gardens). At this time of year, as flowers come into bloom, it begins to draw the crowds, and so it is that we spent the afternoon there today. The weather was generally overcast, so not an ideal day to visit but it was dry and the winds weren't too severe. And of course, I'm always happy to go to locations where a certain amount of wildlife is guaranteed \ud83d\ude09 <\/p>\n

The trees are particularly stunning, with the early blossoms creating a wonderfully rich array of colour.<\/p>\n

Wakehurst Place coming into bloom<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

A particular star showing was the Magnolia Campbellii var. Mollicomata<\/i>. If ever a tree drew crowds, this was it. I was one of many taking photographs of the blossoms. Utterly stunning, and worth the visit in itself. The tree is located at the head of the water gardens.<\/p>\n

Magnolia Campbellii<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

As with all good gardens, Wakehurst boasts a pond. It's just a shade larger than the average garden pond, and today was dominated by black-headed gulls, though numerous mallards were skirting the edges, and moor hen were in evidence.<\/p>\n

Female Mallard<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Mr and Mrs Mallard<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Black-headed Gull<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

I've put some more of the photos from today in the Wakehurst 2008<\/a> album, and will be adding more to it over the coming weeks and months.<\/p>\n

Camera note: my 100-400 lens is being repaired (!), so all today's shots were with the EF70-300mm 4.5-5.6 DO IS lens.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1003,989],"tags":[144,334,24],"class_list":["post-1083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-landscape-2","category-water-birds-birds-2","tag-plants","tag-wakehurst-place","tag-wildlife-2","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t