Saturday seems a long way away now, especially since the day was so warm and sunny, and we are now back to the more traditional English grey. I went for a drive to amongst other places, Shillington, Pirton and Clophill, and the majority of the time was spent at the vibrant Pirton Blacksmith’s Pond.
I was truly amazed by the amount of wildlife present in such a small area, the water was clear, or should I say transparent, as the amount of small leaves and branches was high. It was so clear that it was easy to see just how abundant was the fish life. Not being an expert I cannot be sure whether the orange fish were carp or goldfish, but as you can see from one shot there were brown fish as well.
There were several different types of bees, at least two types of hoverfly and more than one type of damsel fly, as well as both sexes, some mating, as could sometimes be seen by pairs in flight. There were lacewings and midges and common flies, one such had failed to realise its weight and was slowly drowning as it was unable to walk on water as the water boatmen were. There were also some caterpillars with striking colours and structures. It was so hot that I had to keep removing my glasses to clear the condensation to be able to keep shooting. I was trying very hard to try to capture damsel flies in flight, but they knew exactly how long I would take to focus, and would change direction just before I managed to succeed. If I then decided to capture them on a reed or iris, again only rarely was I swift enough!
From Pirton I went towards Clophill where I found a stream and whilst there met a fisherman and photographer who later very kindly took me into his fishing area pointing out a field favoured by lapwings and before the weather closed in, I only managed to get some quick shots of some greylag over-flying.
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