Sunny Visit to Priory Park Bedford

The weather was warm and bright, and it had been a fair time since I had been to this place, but I was really looking forward to what it was going to offer on this occasion. What really pleased and surprised me was the variety of subjects. I had been concerned that it might be difficult to keep my distance from the expected numbers of people I would encounter as the weather was so warm and bright, but everything went well, and finding subjects for the camera was no problem at all.

Although the camera kit I brought with me gave me various opportunities, I only put the 60-600mm Sigma zoom on the Canon EOS R6, and attached it to the monopod with a small ball joint head, so I could have a stable support with minimal weight. As I have found from excursions in the recent past, this is kit I can carry all day long with excellent scope for almost every aspect of images I am likely to encounter. Although I did have another lens in my rucksack should I encounter subjects that needed real closeups, but everything that came my way, or I found when deep in the woods never needed any change.

One surprise for me were the zealous swans, as on more than a single occasion I would see one head aggressively towards another at high speed and with much slapping of wings on the water, causing the victim to head away at high speed. Now, I have no idea of the sex of the participants, and whether it was predatory or sexual, but my guess is that it could be related to both. I did my best to cover the encounters which seemed to occur a few times in quick succession, but my observations never settled on a conclusion.

There were times when shots I had hoped to capture failed, one in particular was definitely down to my not spotting a bird a few feet in front of me; it was very close, and only broke cover when I had become a foot away! Another failure was a series of shots where the bird I was panning was flying against the rippled water surface, and the entire sequence held the rippled water in focus, not the bird in flight, surprisingly I had not noticed this whilst shooting, a failure which really annoyed me!

I noticed that I spent longer in the park than the majority, so perhaps afternoon tea drew the majority to their homes. On my return trip back to the car, I closed the monopod leg, considering the afternoon’s shooting was over, when I came across a couple of energetic magpies, only to put the camera back to work for one last time.

I found the afternoon rewarding, and well worth the extra miles to exercise my legs and brain, and I hope that those who take the time to look at the images enjoy the pictures as much as I enjoyed the challenge of taking them.

Marsworth – Last Day of Summer 2014

With the clocks going back an hour at two o’clock Sunday morning, and the weather apparently set fine for the Saturday, I set my alarm for an early start, but still managed to leave very little time for sleep! I think I will try to make a special effort to catch up on Sunday, when we have a family gathering in Cambridge that starts in the afternoon.

I headed for Marsworth with a very light rucksack with a cushion inside as I really needed a more comfortable seat, and so it proved. I also travelled light; with just the single lens, the 150-600mm Tamron on the 5D MkIII. It was not as clear as had been forecast, but as the sun rose in the sky, it did mean that what light there was not too harsh. When I arrived at my chosen location, another photographer had been there for a couple of hours already, but though he had seen some Water Rails, and glimpsed a fly through by a female kingfisher, none had settled.

As I had managed to capture a swan in flight at take-off from Marsworth, I had hoped our luck might change, but it was wishful thinking and although we were visited, the female stayed shyly in the trees which hardly made for an attractive and meaningful setting for a kingfisher, though there was one instance when I did spot her fishing way in the distance, but way too far even for 600mm!

I did spot the grey wagtail again and the squirrel, and we were in our friendly robin’s territory, but it remained too close to get a shot, but he did benefit from a few crumbs of my toasted sandwich. Merv left before me, but after a further hour, I too departed and managed to get a few more shots of departing swans and rounded off with a silhouette of trees in the field by the Trout Stream.

Bright Sun at Marsworth

After a spell of really dismally grey and blustery days, it was a delight to see blue sky and high clouds and less of a wind, so there was now ay I was going to miss out. Rather than venture in the direction of Hertfordshire, I headed towards Buckinghamshire and the Marsworth Reservoir, taking just the 100-400mm lens on the 5D MkII.

As I walked between the two lakes, I heard the very distinct sound of heavy flapping and over Startops I spotted a lone swan that had just taken off, but it was both too distant, and only glimpsed through branches, but little did I know it then, but it was to be a feature of that afternoon; the swans were definitely restless and spent a good proportion of the time, taking to the air and moving to a different spot. This was noticeably a weekday when those lucky enough to be still off were taking advantage of the sunshine and comparative warmth to exercise their dogs, walk off their Christmas excesses, play with their young families or fish.

I got a call from one of my daughters asking whether I wished to join them with their two over at Towersey and take a walk along the Phoenix way, so I was destined not to be at the reservoir for too long, and the numbers of families out for their constitutionals steadily grew as I returned from the locks towards Bulbourne. On my outward trip I came across a wonderfully vocal robin presumably doing his best to woo a mate, and I am sure he would succeed as his was the most song I have ever heard from a robin, and it was very melodious!

Though I was only there for a short spell, my time was well-rewarded, and it was not long before I was heading towards Thame during which time I received an invitation to London to meet up with my niece and nephew before they both returned to India. Later I was to receive another call, this time to ask whether I was happy to have two different viewings for the house on Saturday; so two nice pieces of news in one afternoon.