Once again I set off with one subject in mind, only to end up with something different – in a word: Serendipity. I headed for Buckland and a puddle by the banks of the Grand Union Canal, with the idea of seeking out kingfishers. I was very surprised having left the houses of Buckland to see a vast industrial complex where fields had been last time I visited, I learned from an angler on arrival at the canalside, that when completed it would be Britain’s largest Milk Processing Plant!
I met up with a fisherman who had barely seen any bird life, who had caught a small bream before I arrived and a three-inch tiddler whilst I was there, so I decided to move on, returning eventually the way I had come when I spotted a young Mallard family swimming along the far bank close in to the reeds.
Just as I entered Buckland I spotted a duck perched on some gates, so got out of the car to grab a quick shot, and it was the second time recently I had photographed a Muscovy Duck! I made my way back to Tringford Reservoir where a pair of Pochard were swimming very close to the shore, and as I watched, the male would dive for tasty green weeds for his paramour and she would then swim up and take some from him; she never once dived herself, though she would dip her head in the shallower water close to the bank.
I lost count of how many times I failed to capture the male doing his dive, but I did finally get close to getting the shot I wanted of this activity. Bad light and a biting wind finally put an end to my attempts to improve upon my diving captures.
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