Stewartby – A Warm Autumn Walk

Monday, afternoon, and I find I have cleared my desk, and since it was very warm considering we were now in November and Autumn was coming to a close; it is often a time of cold winds and rain. I decided it was too good a an opportunity to miss as the light would definitely soon be departing as the clocks have now gone back bringing evenings ever closer.
I drove a short distance to Stewartby Lake and decided on a walk around the lake anticlockwise toting the 5D MkIII and the 24-70mm with its Macro facility. There was a milky sun which occasionally was almost completely occluded by clouds, and always when I really wanted the direct sunlight to break through! There was no human activity on the surface of the lake, so if I were to find subjects it was going to either be leaves or possibly some avian subjects, so I wandered along the path occasionally diverting down smaller paths that led to the foreshore to see what I could find.
Some of these were tunnel-like with the sun if out, reflected on the water amidst dark foliage, The ducks on the water soon paddled out of sight due to the narrowing view I had and their sense I might offer danger. I found that the ivy clinging to the branches of trees seemed very fresh presumably at the expense of the host trees whose branches they clung to and climbed.
In one of the clearings on the opposite side to the lake I found an abundance of apples, and there seemed to be way too many to be simply windfalls, but I could be mistaken. When photographing the foreshore it is always obvious who the previous owners of the land were, because of the abundance of bricks with names such as London Brick, or Phorpres stamped in their frogs. These lakes such as nearby Brogborough owe their origin to the London Brick Company's excavation of the local clay. They have now become lakes and been acquired for more leisurely activities such as powerboating, sailing, windsurfing, and fishing and the enclosing land has cycleways, paths, grasslands and picnicking areas, and is home to birds, butterflies, and insects in wide varieties.
In my walk of a mere sixth of the way around the lake I met some really interesting people with whom I chatted, one who had two wonderful dogs he was walking, a man who worked nearby at a local engineering business, who showed me a super quality picture he had taken of a dragonfly that landed close by to him, and a charming young lady who who had just settled down to rest on one of the many seats provided, with lake views that take the stresses out of workaday life. This lake and its paths are wonderfully peaceful and friendly places, which every so often can be somewhat less peaceful when this quiet gives over to the exciting sights and sounds of powerboats.
I am guilty to photographing both the peace and the roar of life in this park, the Forest of Marston Vale; it caters well to a lot of Community activity and it has a large Wind Turbine that even powers the Visitor Centre and its power surplus is fed back to the National Grid.

Forest Centre – Afternoon Sunshine

Trying to restore a damaged operating system involves long periods of waiting, and watching a mostly automated operation, and lacks any appeal, especially when the sun has made its first appearance for a while – today was such a day and the temptation to do something more meaningful was way too enticing, so I grabbed cameras and lenses and headed out to the nearby Forest Centre to see what wildlife was around. I had not brought boots, which proved a severe limitation as it was very obviously muddy which limited where I could go. There was birdsong aplenty, and none of it exotic, and despite my generously spreading birdseed in several attractive spots from a photographic standpoint, no birds seemed in any way interested, perhaps as worms were close enough to the surface and easy pickings.

After a walk that took me close to the turbine along navigable paths, I returned and made my way to the walkway through the reeds, checking along the way on whether my seeds had proved tempting, but they seemed intact. Perhaps out more in the open might prove more enticing, but there even the berries were still in reasonable abundance, so perhaps this outside larder here was well-stocked! I returned past the birdfeeder and spotted that a grey squirrel was out beneath it picking up the seeds dropped from the hanging baskets above by some of the visiting bluetits, so I took a few shots of it and them, though the area was largely in shade.

Whilst in that area, the clouds created a circular shape as if the thumb and forefinger of a hand were describing a circle, which I found was interesting, and later as I returned towards the car a robin was singing its heart out and being answered from across the walkway, which I found touching; I left him some seeds in the angle of a branch to say ‘thank you’ and wished him luck.

I returned to the more mundane task of continuing with trying to restore one of my computers.

Marston Vale Forest

I needed to check out different subject matter for my 300mm prime lens, so I took myself off to Marston Moretaine and what was the Millennium Park, now Marston Vale Forest. Part of the area borders on a lake formerly a claypit and it is a wonderful wilderness for bird and insect life. I entered the Nature trail via the wooden boardwalk above reed beds, and soon found several dragonflies zooming around and landing on the wooden railings.

What I really wanted though was to capture these flying, not static and foolishly thought that patience could prevail by focussing on one that had landed and then to capture it at the moment of takeoff! What a forlorn hope, I got very used to erasing blank images because my reactions were way too slow to press the shutter in time. So I made my way to the water’s edge and tried my luck following them once they came into view, but standing and trying to keep track of them was equally fruitless. I moved to another spot and waited; again there were only fleeting visits.

I walked on and then found a spot of grass fronted by reeds and finally put down a groundsheet and sat and waited, this was far more productive, an I soon recognised a pattern emerging as to where they flew, and where they hovered, and got my first two shots, one was chopped half off, but the other was average – but I had done it! Now to repeat the exercise.

I stayed there for more than half-an-hour and got a few more opportunities and a bit of ‘chimping’ showed I was getting better shots, and I tried upping the shutter speed to ensure sharpness. Eventually I felt I had succeeded in my aim, and had earned a cup of tea.