Two Visits – Pure Serendipity

  On this trip out, I spotted the entrance to woodland with a short lay-by handily situated immediately opposite. This seemed like a welcome invitation, since I had never visited it previously, and if it warranted a display board to announce itself, it seemed like bad manners not to accept the invitation to visit and explore.

I parked up and decided on what I would take with me and soon I found myself walking along a wide well-kept path bordered with lush grass, and young bluebells with trees displaying fresh young leaves soon to be opening to welcome Spring. The sun had little difficulty in providing its rays to hasten this growth which would be lost to the full glare within a very short time as the wood lost its present sparse look to provide shade for those who would walk their dogs along these avenues.

My walk through these avenues encountered just a few people exercising their dogs, a small young family group and one couple who stopped to chat, and mention that as they had been walking along the parallel path, the man suggested I might well find an interesting shot of a small clump of flowers growing in the cleft of a tree. He was indeed correct!

Later, I spotted a sign to a derelict church, so followed the lane and took a few shots there before returning to the main road and continuing my return trip home. The afternoon proved to be very rewarding by relieving any stress caused by my current isolation from my family.

Tring Reservoirs — Mainly Marsworth

Despite the dull, overcast weather, I headed south to the reservoirs at Tring; parking the car in the field adjacent to the Tringford lake and the entrance to the Anglers jetty, and walked the short distance to get a view of what life was either on the lake or nearby — there was very little life at all, mainly some coot and gulls. Disappointed, I assembled my camera and 60-600mm Sigma Sports lens onto the EOS R body with the 1.4 x Converter, and headed across the road to see whether my luck was in, at either of the other two lakes: Startops, or Marsworth — it turned out disappointingly for both, with most birds staying out in the middle of both lakes.

Activity was desultory presumably because of the lacklustre weather, so I focussed on the only action there was on the far shore of Startops, where a couple were creating a slight stir for the gulls, by ‘breaking bread’ religiously as a break from their dog-walking. The only other nearby activity was an odd pairing of a Canada Goose and Greylag, and a more natural Swan pair. That helped me decide to travel the short distance to the fourth  of Tring’s Reservoir Lakes, at Wilstone.

This proved to be a difficult route to even arrive at the closest point of its shoreline, and was even more disappointing since I was only able to record some further dog walkers and some distant views of the lake on my return trip to the car, but I enjoyed the exercise, the fresh and mild air, and the knowledge that I was not missing too much, it also made me wonder about how much cross breeding there was between Canada Geese and Greylags. I must ask my Avian Guru, Chris Gomersall, who regularly runs trips for Nikon, to which even Canon aficionados such as myself are equally welcomed.

                I did get to speak to Chris and learn that it is not that uncommon for such relationships to occur; I also learned that my memory is not what it used to be, since he told me I had asked him the same question on an earlier occasion!

Wendover Woods via Mansion Hill

Having had a hand in rolling the pitch for Bamville Cricket Club, and knowing that they play most Sundays in the season, I thought it very likely that they would be playing this Sunday, however, unbeknownst to me the season does not start till May! So where I was thinking of apologising for missing the first hour of play, it was not the case as, on arrival the pitch looked exquisite, but bare of stumps or players, the pavilion was still shuttered and two dog walkers had taken the place of spectators. The significance of this preamble was that I had come to give my 100-400mm lens  sports airing!

I had learned that woodpeckers could be found deep in Wendover woods, so I changed plans and headed there, because this was a lens that might do such subjects justice. I headed not to the main entrance but to a small car park beyond at Mansion Hill, and began the long ascent through the woods. There were the first signs of greenery appearing, and there were numerous small clumps of primrose in a wide expanse of grass, before the track narrowed.

The beauty of the woods is that however many visitors might arrive, you only have to keep taking tracks away from the main one, and the woods become your own. I saw just one couple ahead when I started, but soon they were lost to sight, then I would meet cyclists and dog walkers descending past me. Almost all exchanged greetings, and some even were happy to converse; often by mentioning my cameras or my lens and assuming that I must be in search of some exotic species, and what might that be?

My reply was the lens choice was more in hope. In return I would enquire as to what they might have seen, and in the case of those also armed with cameras had they found anything of special interest or specifically woodpeckers, but the answer was always negative. When I reached an open spot with a memorial plaque giving a map of the scene beyond, I was rewarded by the spotting three buzzards having a dog fight above the new housing estate, but they were sadly moving off even as I arrived. What surprised me was the overall dearth of birdsong, there were occasional spots where you could hear chatter for a minute or so before silence returned with only occasional breaks for the soughing of the wind in the trees. By far the loudest sound for much of the time was the Ice Cream Van’s call or aircraft overhead.

I took the elliptical Fitness route, but did not have the energy to take part; instead I took the sign’s message about taking care not to over-exert myself (after all I needed my energy for the return trip!) When I did finally turn back I managed to miss the correct turn and found myself dropping down far more than I remembered, but decided once I had realised my mistake, to just continue – what I did not know was that having dropped a good deal, this path then climbed and climbed back to the original route, so by the time I reached that point I was very much out of breath! It was at that point that I met a very chatty group of friends who were also descending, they were very easygoing and I walked alongside them and joined their conversation and I slowly got my breath back as we all made our way to the bottom. I pointed out where they might see primroses, and sadly did not get a shot of the squirrel that one of them spotted. We parted in the Car Park.