Afternoon Visit to Marston Reservoir

I was late in setting off and also not helped by road diversions, and my own carelessness by taking the incorrect exit from a roundabout, which meant a long trip to return and take the correct one! Not the most auspicious start for the trip to Marsworth Reservoir.

I also had to unlock the gate upon arrival, then when I had put the camera and tripod up, then had to clamber over the relocked gate! I had decided to use my lightest tripod as I anticipated a fair trek, and my knees are weak at present; this carbon fibre tripod does not open very wide on the first click, so with a long, heavy lens, it is none too stable, so that hardly helped, but having clambered over, I set off through the woods, and came across a trio of anglers already packing up after a catch-less morning and by now, some dark clouds were blowing in my general direction, and the wind had risen. 

I was soon widening the legs of the tripod, and started shooting, amongst the early activities I spotted was one of the gulls attempting to land on the flimsy branches of a heavily laden tree of berries; I captured its first and failed attempt as well as its next and successful foray. A gull did not strike me as the most likely bird to consider berries, as in its marine habitat I would expect it to be mainly interested in small fish just below the water’s surface, though perhaps I should not be too surprised having watched one of the TV programmes where an underwater photographer had filmed roach feeding off low-hanging berries in a river.

In the main gallery linked from the headline text, there are just the shots where the gull gets its targeted titbit, but here is a link of both the failed and successful attempts upon the berries:- 

<http://www.fntn.co.uk/rodwp/Marsworth-BerryCleverGull>

There is also a further separate gallery, where a young Grebe is equally persistent in its target — the capture and swallowing of its prey, a small tiddler of a fish, and during the period that I was watching it had been making dives every twenty seconds or so, before coming up successfully, and only after I had clicked some three shots did I spot that finally success had rewarded it! That I caught the sequence was as pleasing as it must have been for the Grebeling.

Here is a link to that gallery:-

<http://www.fntn.co.uk/rodwp/Marsworth-YoungGrebeSuccess>

I have just realised that both those sets of images effectively topped and tailed the visit as both were close the beginning and end of my Marsworth trip. Altogether it proved to be a worthwhile trip, despite the wasted time and fuel. Although the Cormorant is not the most loved of birds to inhabit our lakes, I did get some shots of one in flight, Anglers would have different ideas on shooting this species, and it does not involve a camera!

One Afternoon; Two Locations and Subjects

A Claas Act – Combine Harvester at Work

Either Click the Main Headline or the link above

Birdlife at Harold-Odell Country Park, Nature Reserve

Click Here for the second gallery of Birds at Harrold-Odell Country Park

I had set off to drive to Harrold-Odell Country Park, with the possibly forlorn hope of finding Kingfishers, due to the eponymous lake name, but along the way I was distracted by the signs of a Claas Combine Harvester at work. I parked up when I spotted it looking very much as if it had just completed that particular field, and walked over and learned my assumption to be correct! Fortunately the driver told me where his next destination was, and gave me directions, and he would be making across fields to reach it.

The directions took me to a spot just beyond the wonderfully evocative name of the village, Newton Blossomville, which I had visited on an earlier occasion. Having initially parked in a less than ideal spot, I walked further beyond the boundary of the village and found the obviously ripe field to which he had directed me and there was conveniently a far safer spot to park.

I got out my camera and lens and waited for the Harvester to appear over the hill, having grabbed a few quick initial shots, realised I could make a better choice of focal length on the next time the machine came my way. I also found out that with the prevailing slight wind direction in my direction, I was covered in dry husks that were in the clouds being created in the harvester’s wake! I stuck around till I felt I had covered the activity sufficiently to create a gallery of images, and headed off in my original direction to get to the Park at Harrold-Odell.

Fortunately by judicious means I have thus created two galleries from the one afternoon’s shooting, so will present them in a single narrative.

I knew that I was in for a fair trek, so rather than carry a heavy tripod in the stifling heat I chose my lightest one the Giottos Silk Road carbon fibre one, so that the 150-600mm Sigma lens could be my chosen lens, which by itself is a good weight! I headed into the woods on the right and followed this path anticlockwise around the lake, and was blessed with a tunnel of tree cover for at least part of my journey, stopping along the way to see possible viewpoints, finally ending up in a narrow gap that headed for a spit of land which lessened the distance from the far shore which was crowded by mainly preening birds ranging from Coots to Herons, but ironically my main interest was on a Great Crested Grebe and young Grebling, which originally were at almost the limit of my chosen lens.

A couple were already there, so I quietly erected the tripod and since they were not using the table, I managed to arrange it such that I could lazily sit on the end of the bench seat and have the tripod bring my camera to an ideal eye-level.

There was another table closer even than mine to the water’s edge, but I would likely disturb the three preening and sleeping swans, so I decided not to upset their tranquility by encroaching on their space. Perhaps also their peaceful presence might well serve to allay others’ fear of my being here. Certainly, the pair of Grebe that held my interest actually came closer to me as the afternoon progressed, so this was my reward.

Although I got some nice shots of the flights of the far less attractive Cormorants, my concentration was upon the fascinating interaction of the Great Crested Grebe and its young charge. Intermittently I followed the unfolding behaviour I was witnessing of this pair, and I am left intrigued by what I saw and recorded; I found it very appealing, and unless I was simply too far away to hear any sounds, I certainly heard none from either of the two Grebe I was so eagerly watching and recording.

I would very much to learn more about what I had witnessed, as a cursory look using the internet, there is an abundance of information on the courtship of Grebe, but I found nothing of parent / child relationship of this charming species of bird.

Marsworth, a Giottos Tripod and Birds

Saturday had been a wonderful dry and warm day, but I was so far behind that I had to spend all the daylight hours in front of a computer screen, Sunday was not scheduled to be great, but was bright at the start, but I still had work to do, and it was already clouding over as I set off regardless to the Tring Reservoirs.

I now had a carbon fibre tripod and was determined to see whether with a head leveller and the Lensmaster gimbal head, it was light enough to be manhandled a fair distance. Having it all assembled for quick use did not make it particularly easy, but it was manageable, and once settled, it proved its worth; it was very easy to get the legs in safe locations and then levelling meant the gimbal offered an easy and stable way to move the lens.

As I arrived at my destination Terry’s familiar face greeted me, and I settled quietly alongside and enquired as to whether his luck had been in, but sadly he had spent more than an hour already, fruitlessly. It seems it was likely Merv who had been down earlier, and had been luckier. We settled down to a lengthy wait before we caught sight of a kingfisher, but it simply made a flyby. We were surrounded by bluetits attracted by seeds which had been spread nearby, but they were wary of our robin. He spent very little time with us on this occasion. The squirrel was out and about, but often only visible through branches.

Terry gave in and departed generously remarking that his leaving might well be my good luck, and an hour after he left, he was proven correct as the kingfisher arrived and stayed a while, but never went fishing, though he did treat the fish to two jetted excretions, obviously everything is done at speed by kingfishers, also he did not choose the most advantageous branch upon which to land; it was badly shielded by other branches. I would have spent more time there, but the wind and rain arrived, so I changed my mind and left.

I had been glad of the leveller when it was in use, but keeping the camera, leveller and head on the tripod meant it was cumbersome on the return walk, though manageable.