Another Visit to Weston Turville Lake

  

I took a swift look at the nearest lake just down the road, but without a camera, and I walked all the way to the water’s edge; there was not a single bird on the lake and only two anglers on the far side, and sadly no sign of the water bailiff whom I had hoped to contact.

I returned to the car, after I had spoken to the Water Bailliff for Tringford Reservoir who told me that it was already packed out down there, so I decided to drive down again to the lake at Weston Turville. I had no idea whether it would be equally packed at this lake, but felt it was worth a try, and if it was then I could take a look at how easy it would be to park close to the nearby canal, as I had learned that there were kingfishers along that stretch.

It was a pleasant surprise to find that the long lay-by was far from crowded, yet once I had got through the entrance and climbed the Bank steps to the top, I found numerous groups either walking or gathered at some of the jetties. Out on the lake the main species of bird were Mallard and Coots, and in the distance Swans; at first I saw nothing of the Grebes, but then I spotted a flash of white in the distance, and took a look through the camera, and it was one, but way too distant. I spotted its mate after a bit, and they spent a lot of time diving, and then I had to scan far and wide whilst counting to 35 to 45 seconds — I have never been able to predict where they would reappear! Occasionally they would come closer, sometimes    further out.

On this lake visit there were also a couple of dinghies out on the water, only one glider was soaring above in the warm sunshine. Occasionally I would get into conversation with some of the other visitors, with my enquiring into where I might catch sight of kingfishers either here or on the nearby canal. Today’s different subject was a brief encounter with a radio controlled speedboat. And later I even met up with the parents of the boy whose speedboat it was!

I had earlier thought that the far shore was only accessible to anglers, but. Learned there was a higher level path that led behind the reed beds, and the last images were taken from a hide. I cannot claim this gallery of shots were exciting, but I was using the 1.4x Converter and some of the Grebe shots would haven impossible without it.

Wilstone – The View from the Hide

Despite the recent wet weather I had decided that I would visit Wilstone Reservoir to see what bird life I could capture. and to that end, I parked in the Car Park, not as in the past at the small layby near the Cemetery, so that I could reduce the distant travelled carrying the fairly heavy tripod. To further avoid the worst of the mud, when I reached the bridge, instead of taking the route through the woods I skirted the edge of the field instead which was far less muddy and lessened the risk of my falling.

On my arrival at the Hide it already had three occupants two of which were photographers, the third a birder equipped with binoculars. I set up the tripod with as little noise as possible to avoid disturbing the others, but this made the task somewhat lengthier as I was very conscious of the noise I was making, but finally I was happy with the height and worked for a while until I realised that I was restricting my angle of view to my right which was the best direction for lighting, so I made some readjustments with as little noise as possible, and settled to take shots of what I found, two of the others then spoke saying they had spotted a grey wagtail, but it took me quite a while to find it, as it was a good distance away and dwarfed by the geese it was near.

The wigeon was one of the first birds I spotted for myself, then there was a White Wagtail, and Teal and then several Lapwing, the latter being the bird of which I took most shots.

It was darkening and the temperature was dropping and I realised I had the trek back to the car to negotiate and so gathered up my kit and left the hide and headed homewards.