Sunny Priory Park, Bedford

Supposedly a tentative loosening of LockDown, but the roads were busy with traffic, and the Car Parks at Priory Park, Bedford we’re filling steadily, I found one of the few vacant spaces in my chosen one. In the branches of a tree above a black bird sang heartily, and a robin came from the bushes to the path seemingly searching for food. Poppies bloomed in the grass alongside the path, and numerous dog roses bloomed in the hedgerows, out on the lake parent Canada Geese formed a close guard on their young as did the Greylags. Watching the ducklings, there are often some more adventurous than others, but the parents were keeping a wary eye out for those that strayed. Early on I was pleased to see a Grebe or two, but these were adults. I soon took the less-travelled paths and found numerous mating pairs of damselflies, and dragonflies in reasonable numbers on the reeds.

On the water in the smaller lakes, were Mallard families, as well as more Canada geese groups, out on various handy perches were gulls relaxing and watching for potential prey. I soon found a Grebe with a single youngster nestled on its back, and from its condition, I suspected it may have had a fight to protect its young as normally Grebe are very well groomed, and this one looked tousled. The floating lilies were yet to open, but those in the reed margins were well ahead. In the trees were a pair of nesting Heron, but In the distance, and  had I not been in conversation with a lady photographer and her husband, I would not have seen them, and although I was able to get a shot; armed with only my handy LUMIX, this was definitely a shot for my grown-up camera and it’s 60-600mm lens preferably with its 2x Converter! Perhaps with the lessening of restrictions I will return with the EOS R!

Perhaps the highlight of my visit on this occasion was to squat down and capture the lengthy grooming of a swan, which I found fascinating; the swan seemed to have all the time in the world to ensure its plumage was in tip-top condition. It did keep its beady eye on me at frequent intervals, but never once showed any animosity towards my interest. It had evidently been at this task for some while due to the evidence of white down all around! I stayed at this spot for quite a time, in the main due to my fascination in how it was able reach every part of its body, yet for 99% of the time I was there, it only occasionally lifted one or other leg simply to extend its reach and retain balance. During my time spent at this spot, a group of young lads who had been present on my arrival, had a visit from other friends before finally leaving; the couple with whom I had chatted earlier and a Czech pair of girls were the only people that ventured to this location. One of the two girls had gone to the end where the lads had been earlier, but when the swan I had been observing came up to the path, unwittingly they had become separated either side of the swan! Once I realised the girl had wanted to rejoin her friend, but was afraid of the swan’s intention, I told her to slowly walk past, and it would be fine, and she definitely was not going to move fast, as I could appreciate from the look on her face! The second girl did speak English, so she translated my suggestion and very tentatively the nervous colleague passed the swan and joined her friend. I then watched the swan return to the water’s edge, but missed the full extent of its stretch and flap to remove the last of the down, and its actual launch into the water.

I do have a very full set of images of the mammoth preening I had witnessed. Appearance for a swan is definitely a high priority! After this spell, I made my way back to the more public area, and got a few shots of youngsters sailing dinghies, and got a closer shot of the Grebe and Grebeling, and a Magpie wandered across my path, on my return to the car.

Altogether a very enjoyable way to enjoy the afternoon in the Park, I suspect it will not be too long before my camera becomes the EOS R with the Sigma 60-600mm and I am lugging a heavy tripod once more! I am also hoping to speak to an expert on the LUMIX who can help me to set up some of the controls to improve access to those I need speedily!

Autumn Sun in Priory Park Bedford

Last time I attempted to capture the colours of Autumn, I was thwarted by the ever-shy English Sun – however when an opportunity arose again, I made my way to Priory park in Bedford; the only adversary on this occasion was my intransigent SatNav, which would bow out when I needed it most which involved me in more than one loop back to take the correct direction at a junction. Even when nearing the Car Park, it was insisting it would appear on my right, but fortunately I spotted it myself on my left, albeit too late resulting in a U-turn at a nearby junction.

I was greeted by a very milky sun, but as forecast, it slowly cleared and was pleasantly warm with not a breath of breeze to ripple the water on the lakes. After a brief conversation wit a couple of ladies by the map, I set off for a walk around the lake with just the 5D MKIII and the 35mm f/1.4 lens. I headed for the water's edge before crossing the green sward to a stand of multicoloured trees in the near distance. After a few brief glimpses beyond the frontage of cover, I headed back to the path that ran around the lake's edge, taking every opportunity that was offered for further trips down pathways into the woods to my left, which resulted in other small pools under heavy tree cover, and small bridges over streams or gullies.

I continued these forays throughout my trip around the lake before returning to my start and changing cameras and lenses at the car after taking the opportunity to eat a Scotch egg and a packet of crisps. I would have liked to have used my monopod with my long lens, but sadly, the 3/8th to 1/4 screw adaptor was stuck firmly and I had no tools to extricate it to attach it to the lens foot. I also swapped the 35mm lens for the Tamron 90mm Macro and took the anti-clockwise trip and returned the way from which I had just emerged with the 5D MkIII and now the 150-600mm around my neck. This time only retracing a third of that side of the lake before making a different route back to the car.

I had covered quite a lot of ground and had found the Canoe Slalom Course, but without its teams of canoeists and met numerous dog walkers and mothers and grandmothers of very young children with a mere handful of fathers, and countless joggers and strollers with earphones firmly excluding the sounds of the wildlife from their hearing. There were also the occasional young businessmen discussing their day's business meetings as they made their way around the lake as well as a few small family groups at the water's edge feeding the ducks and gulls, or using plastic ball throwers to keep their dogs exercised. It was only towards the end of my trip did I spot any birds that my camera could consider capturing.

It was a very relaxed interlude with several tunnels of trees to capture bathed in warm autumnal hues and casting long shadows through the branches of trees still fairly-well covered in their foliage, but as I walked I witnessed numerous flutterings of leaves falling to form the golden carpet that covered the paths I was following, every so often I would turn around and take shots from the opposing direction when I spotted the new view from the other side.

I wondered just how long before the wind and rains of the oncoming winter would be upon us. 

Priory Park Bedford

Andy Fox, who has now gained his LRPS for his photographic work, contacted me to arrange a visit to Priory Park, Bedford, which turns out to be close to Cardington, the last RAF Station at which  my father had been stationed, and ironically the first I went to when four years later I joined the RAF. The entire area close by has been transformed almost beyond recognition over the last few years, but the park is a vast haven of lakes, woodland and wildlife.

We parked up and Andy showed me on a plan where he suggested we walk to make a round trip of it. The first thing that you see is a carved wooden totem pole, and Andy said there had been another carving, but local youths had set fire to that, resulting in permanent night closure of the park. That desecration saddened me that anyone could be so wantonly destructive.

We headed for the the Labyrinth and its carvings, before moving to the river.  (See if you can spot the owl, the horse and the shapely lady – they are not carvings!) One of the first things that I saw were large dragonflies, but they conclusively evaded being photographed, but one particular brown one gave us both quite a few laughs, flying often tantalisingly close and always at high speed. Andy was closer to getting a shot than me!

Soon one species of damselfly, I believe to be a banded demoiselle soon turned out to be a very frequent habitué of the reeds and nettles at the river’s edge.

It was whilst we were concentrating on these close to the ford, that we heard a loud scream of laughter as one girl managed to slip and land on her backside before reaching the water whilst her children looked on from our side. After much further laughter the father made the attempt to cross and had no sooner got to the water than he followed suit! He was not quite so lucky, as he got a soaking and filled his trainers with water, which he had carefully removed beforehand! He was not very happy at the thought of sitting in his car in sopping clothes, so we suggested he might walk for longer!

Although we saw a few more dragonflies, and numerous damselflies, there were very few butterflies to be seen. We did watch a persistent tern diving for fish, and a grebe with a single youngster, before our return to the car. We were very lucky weatherwise, as no sooner had we arrived back at Andy’s, the rain came down in a sharp shower! Altogether a very enjoyable afternoon.