Brogborough Lake’s Fauna and Flora

On the last occasion I had been photographing the Windsurfers of Brogborough Lake, I was in a clearing above the water’s edge on the far side, and had been inundated with damselflies with only the very occasional dragonfly, so I was determined that I might take along the right lenses to be able to capture dragonflies this time around, as the wind was non-existent, so no activity from windsurfers.

I cycled over rather than use the car, and as I left the old A421 to head for Lidlington a broken branch was hanging halfway across the lane, so I laid the bike down and tried my best to push it clear of the highway, but it was not having it! I then flagged down passing motorist hoping one might have a knife so I could hack it back, but in the end a passing lady helped me to snap some of the lesser branches sufficiently to clear the road.

 I then thanked her and continued my journey to the gate into a field on the right where fortunately I was able to squeeze past, in the gap between the gate post and the trees to reach the water’s edge just beyond the windsurfing club.  I settled down close by the gate in the shade of a bush with the 100mm  macro on the 7D MkII and was soon visited fleetingly at first by numerous dragonflies, with only a very few damselflies and where I was on the bank there were wild flowers directly ahead of me which attracted a few bees every so often, so I had chosen well.

I saw a solitary reddish brown dragonfly, but it never came in close, nor did it land, whereas the blue-bodied ones often landed just a few feet away directly on the beach, and frustratingly were very much camouflaged by the scrubby detail of the ground which meant the detail of their wings were largely lost – I am tempted to find a small plank of weathered wood to bring with me next time and leave it at the right distance from where I sit to correct for that issue!

The bees were more amenable in that they were both closer and not fazed by my close presence, making them a far easier subject for me to capture. Since this area really belonged to the local anglers I was concerned when one came along that I might be kindly asked to leave, but I need not have worried, when I spoke to him, he was entirely happy for me to continue. Once the sun came around to beat down upon where I had been stationed, I called it a day and cycled back to Marston Moretaine.