Another Nature Walk with a Camera

                At a time when being close to others is fraught with difficulties, getting out in fresh air and carrying a camera come together as not only a good idea, but also a healthy one from a purely selfish perspective — I need to ensure that my brain is active, and being challenged. On this occasion, although I set off in a northerly direction, I did not actually have a specific destination, because to be too specific might result in expectations being unfulfilled. I did however have a preference for subject matter — Nature.

The weather was warm and on my recent excursions had been to cover birds that were of reasonable size whose habitat was both on the water and shoreline. On this trip I found myself close by Oakley and the River Great Ouse. I walked from my car close by the bridge and away from the village and church and the shady path that could lead to the windmill. I could hear the chatter of young voices coming from the far end and heading towards me, and leading from the path several areas had been cut back to give access to the water’s edge, so I took one of these to both avoid close contact, but more to see what might be  found among the reeds.

There were damselflies flitting around, but as there was a fair abundance of light, flight was sustainable, and at their size, I was far more likely to get photos of them when static on leaves or reeds. There were different species of Damselflies, and different body colours — blue, red and gold, and their prevalence certainly characterises much of the content of this gallery. Damselflies have two sets of wings, and whilst observing some of them, they would very rarely, but occasionally flick them open briefly whilst still static, and this presented me a challenge to capture such moments, but my success rate was poor! But frame 16 was a success, but considering that I witnessed this behaviour numerous times and with different damselflies, my reflexes were certainly challenged, thus my success rate of one was pleasing! There were far more challenging times for the damselfly males, as although I saw much activity on the mating front, I only saw a single example of dual flight despite many forays! Another challenge I enjoy is the capture of alphabet shapes — see if you can spot W-A-X? And surprisingly, I have not re-ordered the images for the letters to create the word!

What also amuses me on occasion when I am met outside, I can be asked what am I actually photographing, and this often when my camera is fixed on a tripod — so in the past I have suggested they look through the back of the camera! I was often looking at a small insect that has yet to move, and the viewer had not seen it till looking away after viewing it through the camera!

On one memorable occasion, I was outside with some College Students; studying photography! and I was amazed that all had passed a four seat chair table beneath a crab apple tree that was absolutely overloaded with windfalls on both table top and chairs! And not one had made the observation — I told them later that a photographer had to look in order to see! On that occasion I was not viewing some distant subject with a long lens!

This trip was definitely insect-oriented, but far from creep-crawly, butterflies and moths can be fascinating in their colours and behaviours, so being out with a camera at this season is never dull. And, the end of this foray, I was challenging myself to capture black-headed gulls, and specifically when in prominent places related to the bridge arches, which adds to the challenge, and one pair were very obliging!

An Interesting Visit to Tring Reservoirs

 

On my arrival at the Car Park at Tringford Reservoir,  I noted several cars already there, so rather than immediately set up the camera and tripod, I decided to check out who was at the lakeside. It was good to have a chat and one outcome was that I was treated to a privileged trip through the woods to visit one swan on her nest. Before that, I recorded the gathering of the circular bales from the now otherwise bare field, by tractor with twin spikes. These early shots were handheld on my EOS 5D MkII using the 24-70mm lens.

I then set up the Benbo tripod and Gimbal head and mounting the Sigma 60-600mm with the 1.4x Converter on the EOS R, and headed over the road to the Marsworth Lake, where I met up with a new young family of Greylag Geese. The new Season’s youngsters were in evidence for Swans, Geese and Ducks, which is always a welcome sight, and in the sky above the Lakes were black headed Gulls, Tern and Pigeons, and on the banks were luckless anglers, one of whom had put out bread and bait to attract fish, which only attracted the gulls which demolished every last scrap as if their lives depended upon it!

Much to my regret, I saw no sign of Kingfishers and precious few Grebe, though I spotted two Herons, they were at a distance, and as if to rub sand in the wound, upon my return to my car a lone heron was in the middle of the very field the car was in, but too distant even for my lens, but I did attempt to lessen the distance but in vain, for I had barely reduced the distance between us by five feet, it took off into the distance!

Sweltering Reservoirs Afternoon

It was very hot, so being near water appealed, and I hoped to see dragonflies out and about, but I only glimpsed one at high speed as it shot by whilst I was at the Tringford reservoir, though what I refer to as standard damselflies abounded and many were now flying tandem. I always assumed if they were blue they were male, if brown – female, but I caught sight of at least two occasions where I saw blue on blue or blue on blueheaded, brown damselflies, so I need to look into this assumption further.

On Tringford the tern were successfully fishing and were around in fair numbers with only the occasional gull coming in, whereas later on Marsworth, black-headed gulls predominated. I was invited to be rowed to the bottom end of Tringford in case I could get slightly closer to the egrets which had seemingly supplanted the grey herons of earlier seasons, but they were mostly far more nervous than herons and our rowing soon displaced them from a greater distance than herons. According to the water bailliff, the cormorants had taken a day off from their recent massive incursions, but he was not there during my visit and they still came in, so maybe his presence earlier this day had deterred them temporarily as I saw at least four during my stay, and one in particular seemed anchored to the middle tower, presumably using the extra height and the still waters to keep an eye on its prey. Certainly whilst we were on the water we spotted at least half a dozen fish clearly, keeping close to the edges of the weeds, as they made there way to the bottom end.

I moved to Marsworth and the canal, where I only saw a few tern, but did get a glimpse of a grey wagtail on the steep sloping banks of Startops. The brightness of the day and the heat seemed to keep the fish from feeding on Marsworth, where the fish though often right at the surface, took the flies rather than from the bait offered by the anglers, so most of those to whom I spoke were hoping for better luck towards evening.

What was noticeable was the abundance of tadpoles close to the shore in places, so if they can avoid massive predation, frogs could be having a resurgence later in the season. This day then, was to prove to be the day of the damselflies.

Tring Tern Time

On the hottest Saturday for some time, I visited the Tring reservoirs in the hope of capturing images of dragonflies; this did not happen, I saw only one very fleetingly, but with a bright sky there turned out to be a good opportunity to capture gulls and common tern in flight, and with any luck perhaps the terns in dives, something which has proved elusive in the past due to their incredible speed. I was luckier this day, but even then, twice the images were blurred despite shutter speeds of 1/1000th of a second and faster! I have every respect for the TV cameramen who manage to follow actions like this with such accuracy and quality.

A member of the public had discarded a whole slice of bread at some time and a hapless duck went towards it and was duly mobbed by a greedy flock of gulls who gave it no quarter. Flock seems an inadequate description for a collection of gulls, a ‘squabble’ of gulls would seem more appropriate. Terns seem on the whole to be better mannered, though I have seen a successful fishing tern subsequently mobbed and robbed in flight, by its compatriots.

Although I recognise the inflight turn of a tern, to a dive, it is still very tricky to follow the bird down and capture the dive and the result; the burst rate of the EOS7D is just able to capture part but invariably the critically important actions occur between frames. This day I was using the EOS5D II body, so I felt proud I had captured something of the dive because the rate is far slower due to the larger image transfer.

As I wandered away at the end of my sojourn I spotted a robin, and just by the stream saw some tiny fish swimming over the weir, and I shot that shot to show a small girl what her mother was trying to point out, earlier I had seen some slightly larger young fish swimming between tow tanks by the Grand Union Canal.

Marsworth – Teeming with Birdlife

Taking a walk between Marsworth and Startopsend reservoirs on a Sunday morning in February, especially having got up early to have a haircut, is certain to be on the chilly side. Add to that a biting wind, and despite some sunshine, it was good to have fingerless gloves to hold a camera.

I spotted a chaffinch cheerfully chirping early in the walk, but was unable to see it clearly through all the branches, next I spotted  a robin and a pied wagtail, and learnt that the robin was distinctly territorial, so the wagtail was soon displaced from the fence top! The early part of my visit with its sunshine allowed me to take shots of various pochard (Click the blue text here to see some beautiful birds), both ducks and drakes and also the red-crested pochard, but as the sun was overtaken by clouds, and families with children threw bread to the mallard and coots, in swooped the jealous and greedy black-headed gulls, intent on stealing every last scrap by attacking en masse.

What was interesting about that is that invariably most of the gulls would leave the melée early and chase the first successful gulls for the morsel, leaving just a few of their number on the water to pick up the sodden remnants. I managed to capture some of the gulls who had the bread, who on being chased managed to lose a grip on their food; in one case because it decided it wanted to sqwawk!

Although I brought along some seeds for the smaller birds, none flew to my carefully prepared small piles strategically place in attractive settings such as stripped bark, fence-posts, tables and winding gear – at least not whilst I waited at a distance!