The wind was so light that the Windsurfers at Brogborough would likely be practising their more subtle skills, or if less experienced simply making the most of a quieter lake to gain confidence, but for a change I was not visiting for their activity, but for something at a smaller scale involving skills in the air. When I sped through the woods carrying a heavy tripod with a long lens on my last visit, shafts of sunlight illuminated some of the gloom and the new season of hoverflies had arrived and were exercising their skills.
Most casual observers see them as dark insects occasionally hovering, then darting away at high speed. However, if you tarry awhile longer, you notice that the reason for some of the darting is caused by others of their species invading their space, and then both will spiral as if they were World War fighter pilots in a fierce dogfight. The other thing you might notice is that they are not black, but have the tiger stripes that emulate those of a wasp, however these beautiful insects are no danger to us, and in fact will land on your hand if outstretched beneath them in flight, or as one did on this trip actually landed on the barrel of my lens! They are exquisite flyers, and absolute masters of the hover. They have small un-muscled small winglets beneath their wings which counterbalance the motion of their wings to provide a natural damper (emulated, I believe in 2005 Formula 1 cars till banned, allegedly because Ferrari were never able to master their deployment, so protested their use by those who had mastered the technique namely Renault).
From my personal observations which allowed me to capture them in flight in the past, they will often hover for a while then with a flick move through 90˚, often cycling through the complete 360˚, oft times being rudely interrupted by presumably, others jealous of their skills!
On this occasion, the pilot I first spotted, was performing in front of me when without outside intervention he darted off, and somehow I got the feeling he was playing with me, so I swung through 180˚ and there he was, again at the same height as before, facing me once more! The more I photograph insects and birds, the more I am convinced they know more about us than we credit – kingfishers can often settle closer to us than we can focus with a long lens, tantalising us! Or ensure branches obscure our view. But as I have learned from anglers that have had kingfishers land on their rods, they have not necessarily learned about cameraphones!
I had arrived rather too late as clouds were increasing which resulted in fewer motes for hoverflies to exhibit their prowess, so overall I was not too successful, but I do now have a new venue. I also spotted what I described as the Central Flying School where the majority of the hoverflies were smaller, so possibly younger, and hovered with far less panache, with an occasional visitor larger in size and far more adept, joining the throng. The skilled ones seemed more often to be apart, and occasionally ‘bombed’ by other lone antagonists.
I did capture some in-flight shots, but far more numerous failures due to my inability to focus fast enough, so captured other items that intrigued such as the haunting face or new leaf and seed growth. I shall return, but as can be seen, I need the light to be on side for me to use the 100mm macro with 1.4 converter and ISOs which reached 3200˚K at apertures no smaller than f/7.1.
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