This time of year, is a chance for me to explore the possibilities for new locations; to seek places offering photo opportunities. So out come maps and various books to give me new places to visit and explore.
‘Where to go for Wildlife in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire’ is just such a manageable sized book to offer a good selection of places to visit and help plan such trips, and Sydlings Copse seemed worth a look, so that was where I headed, but due to a mixture of mildly unhelpful signage, reaching its Car Park involved a tad more than my SatNav and three three point turns to actually arrive, but perhaps that was a cunning plan to ensure the small Car Park was not overwhelmed!
I had not packed my gear in the ideal manner for the task in hand as the weather had been unkind to this environment as much of the area was waterlogged due to the recent rains. I wasted much valuable time changing shoes from those suitable for driving to plodding through mud and putting the chosen lens on the camera and monopod, because I was fairly sure there was a good trek before I would actually be shooting. Also, I decided to sling a second camera round my neck, to ensure I did not have to make a premature return for a lens change. That precaution proved to be superfluous, but it was hardly a burden.
The shots I captured were hardly world-shattering, but what I did find later that was not expected was yet another site with numerous anthills much like those I encountered at Pilch Field, and this little nugget of information was to come up in a conversation with a fellow visitor to this spot, as this gentleman had been unaware of the true nature of theses mounds! After a shortish, but careful plod through the slippery path, I was able to negotiate the kissing gate to the wide vista offered by the open undulating grassy slopes to which I had arrived.
It was an interesting venue that I will definitely pay a future visit, because I had seen but a tiny fraction of this place, and had arrived way too late for this time of year, and the sun was setting by the time I returned to the car, and the scraping sounds from the indefatigable Park Ranger as he bent to the task of clearing some of the mud from the parking area. Once I had completed the task of restoring my camera gear to the boot to the sounds of his ongoing battle with the mud, I stopped for a chat with him, but I was not alone in preventing him from his delayed labours, because he was deep in conversation with yet another visitor when I bade him farewell in the now deepening gloom!
One of the lasting memories of this short visit was the vivid saturation of green, in the moss-covered stumps of long dead trees. Another aspect was where I had photographed some of the other visitors and apologised for my intrusion upon their privacy, how easy it was to involve those fellow visitors in conversation, as they either walked as couples, or exercised their canine pets in the great outdoors. I hope I have captured the atmosphere of the place in such a brief visit, and hope to return for a longer and earlier visit when it is drier underfoot.
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