Tringford Tiny Wildlife

My first task for this Saturday was to ensure the house was presentable, so before showering, I put on Friday's clothes as what I had to do was going to be sweaty, as the morning was very close, and I was destined to be down on my knees pulling out stubborn small weeds embedded between the stones of crazy paving. A task that was essential if the house viewers were to feel that the rear garden was presentable.

After the shower and in new clean clothes I made for Tringford, so that the couple viewing were free to discuss whatever dastardly deeds they were going to perform on my house were they to consider purchasing. I had previously packed my camera bag with a choice of lenses as I had no clear decision as to what I might be photographing, but I did know from my last visit, that the corner of the field that serves as a car parking area was teeming with life in the long grass. Initially I simply walked around disturbing the grass to see what took flight, without getting out a camera, but it soon became obvious that the field which had now been harvested was still full of life.

I got out the 100mm Canon lens on the 5D MkII and set 1600 ISO as it was not exactly bright with heavy rain-bearing clouds scudding overhead, and set AV mode and f/10, and for the second time that day was back down on my knees, but I have to say, this was a lot more enjoyable than earlier! Even now several hours later as I write this entry, my thumbnails are still painful from tugging at stubborn weeds. I think I referred to these leaping insects as Crickets, but I think in fact they are grasshoppers. The only accurate way I have found of seeing them in the first instance is to disturb the grass, so they jump and then the stems they land on vibrate upon impact and then they become visible, though even then you have to be observant.

Likewise for these tiny frogs that I describe as froglets, I have no idea whether they are simply very young or they are a small species, but both the grasshoppers and froglets are certainly nervous of this lumbering human, and in reality I was being very stealthy and quiet, and banked shots at a distance before moving ever closer. As before, it was not long before the rains came, putting an end to my shooting and as I 'chimped' the shots I had taken, the phone rang and it was the Water Bailiff, who later joined me in the car for a chat. He is a Stamp Collector and so I showed him the sets in the series of 'British Auto Legends' and in particular, the Taxi that had been retouched by my fair hand.

Tringford – Small is Beautiful

Tringford reservoir has the lowest level I have seen, and not due to weather conditions or massive use of the Grand Union Canal, but due to a seized bearing in the pump at the Pumping Station which has meant the inability to get water to that lake. This has apparently made waders from nearby Wilstone reservoir who currently have no shallow sloping shoreline to take advantage of just such a feature brought about at Tringford – a silver lining?

The swans at Tringford after a long barren spell, now have a clutch of cygnets to cheer them up, and a Tufted Duck Mother has a string of ducklings which currently number twenty-one, and both mothers are duly protective of their offspring.

The exposed shoreline has revealed some interesting colour and strange shapes of encrusted chalk. In the nearby field the grassy perimeter hides a plethora of tiny creatures; including several differently adapted crickets, some moth-like flies that are readily predated by the male damselflies, and there are numerous tiny froglets.

The forecast had been for showers, and the Water Bailiff who had been saying to me when first I arrived that they had it wrong, well it was not long before he would be eating his words, for as I was on my knees taking ultra close-ups of a tiny cricket a few drops came down on my back and that of the tiny insect I was shooting, but that was a mere prologue for a prolonged downpour; I had barely covered the few feet to the car before it set in with a vengeance, and I still had to contemplate opening and closing the gate! Needless to say, I got a drenching and had to put a throw I keep for the purpose behind me, to keep the damp from the seat.

Out on the open roads, they had become flowing rivers as the rain fell in abundance and continuously the entire return trip. I had hung out washing to dry before I left, and it was now way wetter than when I put it out! Fortunately the vital bedding I had hung in the conservatory! The contents of the line had to be re-spun before tumble drying.