Life on and by a Bedford lake

                I decided to visit a specific spot on the River Great Ouse where I park close by a Food store and Car Dealership that is a short distance from the river, with generally rich pickings for photography and my luck was in as, soon after walking a short distance along the path and with my camera set up on my lightweight tripod, A canoeist paddles by with an attractive sheet of water streaming from his paddle down to the surface. To be graced with such luck upon my arrival was a delight and not long after another landed equally nearby.

               The rest of that afternoon the subjects for my lens were aquatic birds, with some interesting interactions amongst some Mallard — a particular female with two male suitors, with what I felt was seemingly the chosen one in close, clearly more appreciated, but who felt that having a standby in reserve was a sensible precaution! The trio remained near for much of my time there, and it soon became clear that the more dominant male had sufficient confidence to remain unfazed by the opposition, but nevertheless with no malice or aggression shown to the rival. The status quo seemed to be acceptable for the present; though I suspect the time is not yet ripe!

               This afternoon, I had no need to venture very far for subjects of interest, but there were no unusual subjects amongst those I captured, so it was behaviours that claimed my attention, with the occasional challenge of birds on the wing to ensure my co-ordination was exercised. This camera certainly justified my decision for its purchase, as I was pleased by the improved burst speed, which had a marked improvement on the success rate I was able to achieve with my current lenses, which was particularly noticeable with my very light Tamron long telephoto zoom, which was much lighter than my Sigma.

               The significance of that is that the added weight of the Sigma makes a heavy and sturdy tripod absolutely essential. During the last few months taking a heavy tripod and a heavy tripod attracts opprobrium under the current situation and I have no intention of drawing untoward attention by something considered professional, and the combination of the lighter lens and new body gives impressive results with far less effort even under poor lighting conditions. The tripod is not my most sturdy, but it provides enough stability most of the time, and far better than hand holding it.

               I really enjoyed being outside, in sunshine and getting exercise and fresh air, which keeps some of my sanity.

Marston Lake Afternoon

 

I drove to nearby Marston Lake, having first ascertained that it was open once again. I parked up at the very first swim, where there was already a parked car, that I believe belonged to the local bailiff, but I could see no sign of anyone nearby, so perhaps he was checking out the various anglers on foot. After a while having taken a look across the lake to see just who was around, I returned to the car, to make my way around further swims to gain some idea of what life there was around the lake. It was very quiet on the lake, with a lone swan close to the far shore, and a few black-headed gulls endlessly working their way around the lake generally a short way offshore for most of the time, would drop to the water presumably in search of fish close to the surface.

I stopped at each swim as I made my way round the road to get differing views of what life there was on the lake, and disappointingly, it was the quietest time I had spent there, perhaps possibly due in part to the cloudy and cool weather; there was minimal birdsong, or calling. Along the way as I travelled between the various swims, I would chat to any anglers I met to question whether they had seen or heard the Woodpecker I had come across at one of my earlier trips to this lake, or had sightings of the Grebe I had come across before I learned of the mink, which gave me cause to wonder whether it was this incident that caused the Grebe to disappear.

l parked the car at the last swim accessible to the car, and took a walk to the last few swims, and finding no one, returned and took out my Sigma Sports lens — initially using it with the attached 2x Converter. With the front two Benbo tripod legs placed in the water,  I set up the camera as low as it would go, so that I could sit on the bank and be as close to level with the eyepiece to shoot. At first  I took some shots of the water lilies, and then the mating water boatmen both walking on water and on the flat lily leaves, bobbing in the wind-rippled water. I watched the gulls as they flew just a few yards from the shore, occasionally swooping down to the water presumably to catch some fish.

As I was at the bank with two of the tripod lengths in the water (a feature made possible using the Benbo tripod) so I could shoot from as low a viewpoint as possible, a Swan I recognised, due to its noticeable swelling to its neck came in close — I judged rightly or wrongly, assuming I might offer it food, but I verbalised my apologies in case it might bridge the species divide. Capturing this varied subject matter, especially the panning shots of the gull on the wing, provided me with the opportunity to continue to hone my skills with fast-moving and somewhat unpredictable direction changes, and overall I did manage to retain focus much of the time. The only noticeable failure on my part was moving the focus point around the screen; somehow that feature eluded me absolutely, so I shall have to consult the manual to work out how to unlock this currently stubborn resistance to my moving it from the centre of the screen!

This flaw apart, it was good to be using this camera and lens combo once again, but this hiatus has allowed me to get to grips with the Lumix, so the LockDown period has had some side benefits. I am hoping that in future handling, either will not be too daunting a readjustment between both cameras.

Easter Sunday, Stockwood Country Fair

The Discovery Centre in Luton hosted their Country Fair on Easter Sunday, and my daughter had mentioned that there was a very interesting character, Ray Smith demonstrating the craft of making a straw beehive, known as a skep. However, for some reason, he did not appear, but I met some of his colleagues and got chatting and was shown some modern wooden ones that could be built from flat packs of wood, and I learned a bit about how they were constructed and why.

I also took a quick trip around the gardens to see how they were growing and watched a flying display of a vulture and owl, but because my intention had been to photograph a craftsman at work and possibly any flowers or plants of interest, I had left my 100-400mm lens behind, and really the 24-105mm was less than ideal to make the most of the aerial display!

I rounded off my trip by a very cursory glance at the exhibition of the Visions of the Universe exhibition, but I will visit that at a later date, when it is less crowded, but it will be well worth a visit as the images and their stories are fantastic.

Muggy Weather at Tring Reservoirs

The sky was overcast, the temperature warm, and the mugginess attracted midges, so damselflies were feeding well and pairing successfully. The swans at Tringford had at last been blessed with a brood and were showing their offspring their stretch of water. The Terns were enjoying the opportunity of the low water level to fish in the shallows at the edge of the reservoir and doing reasonably well, one brought its catch to the old Rothschild boat.

After a spell on this lake, I then moved to Marsworth where I was lucky several times to capture a heron in flight, and likewise the terns here were patrolling the margins giving me reasonable scope and they were having a good feed here too. I was really lucky to hear the approach of a heron and turned just in time to capture his successful taking of a Roach from right beneath a pair of Grebe! And then to follow it as it flew off with its bounty.

I was also fortunate that an angler threw some bait to lure the terns in close to me whilst we chatted, so despite the lack of sun and a spell of rain, by shooting at 1600 ISO I was able to get some reasonable if grainy images for my stay.