Another Marston Thrift Visit

I am very aware that the isolation rules are vital for everyone's ultimate survival and safety, so I limit my trips out and specifically do not venture out every day, and often not even every other day. I am careful not to flaunt the guidelines so, on those few times that I do venture out into the countryside nearby, I carefully choose areas that are not popular with the general Public, thus the few other humans I do come across are generally those exercising their dogs. The choice is easy because I am trying to seek out those spots where humans do not disturb the wildlife!
Yesterday was the most recent day I ventured out, and I left it late in the day specifically so that most will have considered heading back; this has a secondary result it means that the day following is definitely going to be one spent sitting in front of a computer, going through the images to weed out any failures, duplicates, or even the boring. As anyone who reads the narratives that I post on my blog will be aware, I am trying hard to understand the very different handling of mirrorless digital cameras to try to bring the success rate closer to that of the Single-lens Reflex cameras I have been using to date. Even though I have devoted a not inconsiderable time with initially a Canon EOS R mirrorless camera, I am now working with a very different beast – a Lumix FZ10002 which sports a Leica lens; the difficulty stems from the firmware being very different from my Canon cameras. Why then have I changed?
The purchase came about by pure happenstance, and it has proved very fortuitous as with the current lockdown, there is no way I could lug around my normal very heavy gear that requires the use of a seriously heavy tripod, unless I happened to live right on top of one of my normal venues. This little camera sports a permanently attached long range zoom lens, is completely portable, and produces very good quality images. I hope that when this lock-down is over I can still remember how to handle my Canon equipment.
I do have to own up to the main reason I have difficulty with this recent camera, and that is down to my age – it is far more difficult for me to learn the new intricacies, and I fear I am glimpsing a different future when this pandemic is over; going back to my Canon gear is going to be equally hard!
Upon my arrival at the Car Park at the entrance to the woods, there was no other car present, yet I could hear distant voices, so those must be others who walked, so most likely they were dog-walkers. Having parked, a family group whom I had passed along the road came in and took the right hand path, so I was happy with that as I had intended using the other. It was close on twenty minutes before I saw anyone along my chosen route and I was by then in open ground, and ironically I did not have to deviate from my chosen route, all those I saw chose different paths. I only came close to one person when I was at the very edge of the Park area at the island beyond, that had a splendid Weeping Willow at its water's edge.
I was luckier on this visit to have got some better shots of the grey squirrel I had seen on an earlier visit, I also got a brief glimpse of a lone Comma butterfly, only my second of this year, and a lonely Robin singing hopefully for a mate!

A Friday Afternoon in Westcott

Dull Weather fails to dampen the spirits of Children or the Birds in Westcott at the end of another week and the beginning of the Bank Holiday Weekend. I had hoped to get some shots of Red Kite flying over the Park as the children charged around the Play Area, and parents sat and chatted, but it was not to be, and also the sun was hiding behind grey clouds that might just give a shower.

I also took shots from two angles of the rocket that stands at the entrance to the Venture Park, that hints at the erstwhile Airfield’s earlier role as a Rocket Research Establishment.

I did manage to later capture a Song Thrush and Jackdaw, and my persistence, (or patience!) was rewarded by getting a glimpse of a Red kite, some blossom and a couple of young lambs, I also learned that if I manage to wrongly assume the monopod is in the boot of the car, then the Carbon Fibre Tripod with just one leg extended can work reasonably satisfactorily, but note to self – Check more thoroughly in the future!

Stewartby Lake Walk

In the past I have often tried to capture the patchwork fields of Oilseed Rape as an early sign of the end of Winter and the burgeoning flourish of colour to the fields and this has been a year when I have not taken any notice of  these cloths of gold, so when a chance came to go out and see whether there were some such fields, I found myself thwarted. There are few hills to give some height to view from, and in this part of Bedfordshire, the crop seems rare, but it had been my intention on this journey with my camera.

I did spot a singular large field, but it was not particularly accessible, and it was in very flat land, so at most would provide a slit of yellow against green and brown, with no undulations and the sky was boringly clear of clouds against the sky. Plan B beckoned. I parked the car by an entrance to the circular path around Stewartby Lake, where I thought there might be some activity on the water from those celebrating the Easter break, but the lake was a serene calm, so of no interest to the sailors of dinghies, so after a quick reconnaissance, I selected my 24-70mm lens and took a walk along the path, widdershins to essentially capture the Spring blossom and the young leaves which lined the way.

Occasionally, there were a few small white butterflies with a flash of orange, an abundance of midges that would find my exhaled breath an attraction, the brief sighting of small birds just darting across my field of view and a small hovering furry insect that defied my ability to record its presence, all around the songs of birds was ever present, but they were largely out of sight. I wandered slowly along keen to capture the small indications of red against the whites of Spring blooms, the textures of sunlight on the wrinkled young leaves and sprigs of blossom against the pale blue sky. The discarded bricks at the water’s edge that defines the foreshore of this vast wound where clay had been extracted for the brickworks whose signature four tall chimneys still stand in the derelict expanse that remains from that time.

It did provide me a small glimpse of a landscape –  in a  scene that caught my eye; a lone swan in the mirror-like calm of still water with a distant stand of tall trees, sadly with an arc of discarded cans in the shallow water, but a picture nonetheless. During the walk I was passed by a couple of cyclists and runners doing laps of the lake and two of those, exercising their dogs alongside for company. Altogether a not too disappointing gallery of images from the short trip.