Small World Insects at Tring Reservoirs

I went hoping to catch sight of dragonflies at Tringford reservoir, but what caught my eye almost as soon as I had parked my car, were tiny orange beetles flying amongst the long grass and wheat. This gave me a further chance to use the image-stabilised 90mm Tamron Macro.

I am aware one should not apply human attributes to other species’ behaviour, but I did notice that on more than one occasion a lone beetle would observe a copulating couple quietly going about their procreation activities, and he would move in closer and investigate said couple by moving his antennae and gently touch the male on its carapace, then move around and investigate from a different angle. I felt this was either voyeurism or educational interest. In one instance the lone beetle flew around to different viewpoints rather than stroll.

As I was observing this activity I also spotted other stirrings and flitterings; a tiny moth, several damselflies, mainly male, and of far greater interest a cricket, which I spotted initially only from the movement of grass blades six or so inches apart. Only when I moved in much closer was I able to spot the reason for the movement – a beautifully still cricket, who so long as I moved smoothly and slowly simply ambled along the stem.

I then spotted a mating pair of damselflies; out of range of the macro lens, but just close enough for the 70-200mm Canon lens to be of use. The remainder of my time was spent on the far bank of Tringford before moving to Marsworth, where the Tern were diving often successfully for small fish, and I was lucky to catch one. I also heard a squawking Mallard behind me and so swung around and panned and somehow the light had dropped way down and so I found that I had taken a few shots at a mere 1/40th of a second, but my panning must have been spot on, because surprisingly I even managed one shot with it obviously mid-squawk!

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.

Priory Park Bedford

Andy Fox, who has now gained his LRPS for his photographic work, contacted me to arrange a visit to Priory Park, Bedford, which turns out to be close to Cardington, the last RAF Station at which  my father had been stationed, and ironically the first I went to when four years later I joined the RAF. The entire area close by has been transformed almost beyond recognition over the last few years, but the park is a vast haven of lakes, woodland and wildlife.

We parked up and Andy showed me on a plan where he suggested we walk to make a round trip of it. The first thing that you see is a carved wooden totem pole, and Andy said there had been another carving, but local youths had set fire to that, resulting in permanent night closure of the park. That desecration saddened me that anyone could be so wantonly destructive.

We headed for the the Labyrinth and its carvings, before moving to the river.  (See if you can spot the owl, the horse and the shapely lady – they are not carvings!) One of the first things that I saw were large dragonflies, but they conclusively evaded being photographed, but one particular brown one gave us both quite a few laughs, flying often tantalisingly close and always at high speed. Andy was closer to getting a shot than me!

Soon one species of damselfly, I believe to be a banded demoiselle soon turned out to be a very frequent habitué of the reeds and nettles at the river’s edge.

It was whilst we were concentrating on these close to the ford, that we heard a loud scream of laughter as one girl managed to slip and land on her backside before reaching the water whilst her children looked on from our side. After much further laughter the father made the attempt to cross and had no sooner got to the water than he followed suit! He was not quite so lucky, as he got a soaking and filled his trainers with water, which he had carefully removed beforehand! He was not very happy at the thought of sitting in his car in sopping clothes, so we suggested he might walk for longer!

Although we saw a few more dragonflies, and numerous damselflies, there were very few butterflies to be seen. We did watch a persistent tern diving for fish, and a grebe with a single youngster, before our return to the car. We were very lucky weatherwise, as no sooner had we arrived back at Andy’s, the rain came down in a sharp shower! Altogether a very enjoyable afternoon.

More New Life at Marsworth

Another Visit to Marsworth Reservoir allowed me to peek and no more at some four young coot chicks on the edge of a reed bed, and later a nesting coot in the lake at Tringford. As I watched a couple of grebe going through their ritual dance, tern were either skimming along just above the surface or gliding around intently searching before swooping to try to catch small fish.

A pair of grebe would be diving for food for a while before taking greater interest in each other, then parting, the returning to begin shaking beaks at each other and stretching their necks, but it did seem somewhat half-hearted. The herons I saw were far more wary than on previous occasions, and the greylags were fairly aloof. And the young mallard families were quite happy to stray from the mother and go diving for the fairly abundant green slime which floated just beneath the surface of Tringford reservoir.

A trip along the coast to Campbelltown

John and I went along the coast chatting about life in Scotland and general, and both of us with a keen eye on our surroundings both inshore and off, occasionally making facetious comments on the amount of traffic – three cars in the entire land and seascape, the first signs of anyone in half an hour! We stopped at times to stroll or clamber along the foreshore, and to wander around the harbour at Campbelltown, where John pointed out its Playhouse which like London's Windmill Theatre had never closed in its long life. We came across a jellyfish and just talked and walked whilst I took sundry photographs of the coast, our shadow, gulls and fisherman's clutter.

Later, we came across seals basking in the sun and rocks, and were amazed by the ventriloquism of the oyster catchers, their calls would seem to come from right beneath our feet, yet either the birds were nowhere to be seen or way across the beach or in flight thirty yards away! However, this did give me great opportunities to try to get shots of them in flight.

The seals we saw in a couple of locations, with one we had mistaken for a rock, decide to swim when he realised we had spotted him. At another spot seals shared the rocks with gulls, cormorants and terns, but except for when a crow disturbed gulls into flight, all was remarkably restful – everyone enjoying the sun and sky with just a faint breeze; enough to keep the midges at bay!