Another Lake Visit – Priory Park, Bedford

I visited Priory Park to see just what I might find, but initially I walked from the Car Park and found I had taken a route from there that was very overgrown, and populated largely with nettles — not an ideal proposition! I returned to where I had set out from and found there was a different route; by going out from the entrance, crossing the noisy wooden bridge and finding myself entering the Park in a far more straightforward way.

On this occasion I was carrying only the one camera, with its built-in zoom lens, the LUMIX FZ 10002, a surprisingly handy tool with its long range 25-400mm lens. This was not the first visit to this location, and once again, I chose routes that avoided crowds, and often walked in any available grassy areas beyond the paths. Although in the main I concentrated on the photographing of flowers, birds and insects, I also got a few shots of a small boat on the lake, a pair  framed by intervening trees; anything that caught my eye that were of interest, or were at least a challenge. On occasion, the viewpoint was the same, but with differing framing, for possible space for adding text, or when taking the shots of bees in one instance, I was obtaining different details.

I have noticed in the past from visiting lakes, some birds display more aggression than others — case in point are Mallard Ducks; they can often be very aggressive amongst themselves. Another aspect of taking images of aquatic birds is often the patterns they create when moving across the surface at speed, and I enjoy capturing the interference patterns caused when the ripples from two birds travelling in different directions, interact.

Textures tend to catch my eye, such as those displayed by developing new, young leaves. This is where this camera with its zoom lens excels, capturing a distant bird on the water, then a short while later, fine crisp detail of a leaf. On this lake, a mere couple of sailors were out on the lake, and managed to capture one using the light wind to jibe around a marker buoy.

Sadly, one of my favourite birds, the Grebe, rarely came close to the shore, and I did not spot any Grebe pairs or young Grebelings here. Sadly, on one of the other lakes I visit, a Grebe nest was raided by the local mink! The mink which have tended to appear on British lakes, are a very unwelcome species that have been responsible for harming both the resident fish and lake-based birds. My day was not as productive as I had hoped, especially as I saw very few Dragonflies, only getting a couple of shots of a  singleton.

However, it was good to get outside for a spell, yet generally avoiding any close encounters, and on my return I fielded a call from another fellow photographer with whom I had not been in contact for quite sometime; and it was a long call, only coming to a close when he was being called to supper by his wife!