Visit to Tring Reservoirs in Blossom

            I knew late morning was hardly the ideal time to be considering taking meaningful wildlife shots down at Tring Reservoirs, but nevertheless put out a call to Tringford’s Water Bailliff, to learn what activity there might be down at the lake, and he felt there might well be some interest. I indicated that therefore I would head on down on that offchance; I learned he was off to London to pick up his wife from hospital, but would be down later. A short while passed and whilst en route, I got a call back from him, that he may inadvertently left a gas bottle without switching it off – would I check, and remove it.

            On arrival I found two visiting brother anglers, one of whom was attempting, thus far in vain, trying to untangle his line, and so I took a look at the gas cylinder and its valve, and found it switched off, and Bob had asked would I remove it for safety. This proved to be less easy than at first sight to accomplish, but the brain cells of the three of us finally worked out how to achieve this apparently simple task, and for safety to avoid any contaminants entering I then carefully rested the valve assembly over the top. Since one brother was engrossed in line-unentanglement, I enquired of them, the swan Bob had mentioned, that was on the nest. Once Learned it was further along from the jetty at the water’s edge, I enquired whether while on brother was occupied, might I be cheeky and ask for a ride out on the lake to get some shots.

             He was more than happy to oblige, so I brought my carbon fibre tripod with the 5D MkIII and Sigma Sports 150-600mm lens atop the Gimbal head gingerly across from the jetty to the flat-bottomed boat, out onto the lake. We stayed a fair distance off so as not to disturb the swan and positioned ourselves so that we could drift gently by with minimal disturbance to either the swan or my platform, so that I could get some shots of her activity, as she put finishing touches to her domestic arrangements to her birthing reed nest.

Click here for the single page Nesting Swan gallery

            I took a series of shots of her efforts before returning to the shore and gathering my kit for a trip to Marsworth lake to continue my shooting, which later I put into two discrete galleries, one which featured the nesting swan, and a more wide-rang collection of shots at the second of the three lakes that form Tring Reservoirs, whose existence is to serve the replenishment of the lost water to the Grand Union Canal due to Lock use along its length.

            In this second group of images I capture Spring blossom as well as avian activity on the lake, in particular some you chicks, and a swan showing considerable aggression towards one of the more mild-mannered of geese, the Greylag. I only saw one lone Grebe, so, overall not a lot of birdlife activity, though much birdsong in the sunshine, and hardly a breath of wind to ripple the surface waters of the lakes.

            I later returned to Tringford and met up with Bob and the departing visiting anglers.