Summer is clearly here. I can tell because it’s been raining most of the day and Springwatch is on tele. But on the Bank Holiday Monday it was glorious and the countryside around St Albans was lush and verdant.
Summer's just beginning, so naturally Springwatch has just started on the BBC. At least that appears to be their logic. Very strange.
Update: Aha, Kate Humble admitted it today when she said "glorious summer evening". It's a scam!
On the way back from a lovely wedding in Shropshire over the bank holiday weekend, we stopped off at Attingham Park – a National Trust property comprising a big house and a bigger estate. We got there fairly early in the day, and since the house isn't open to the massed hordes until 1pm we snuck on a free tour at 11. This turned out to be an unexpected delight, as the tour was specifically about the usually hidden process of keeping a big old NT house clean throughout the seasons. I didn't realise quite how much careful effort goes in every day just to keep dust at bay, not to mention light, insects and humidity.
To me the house isn't the star attraction here though (we went back and had a full look once it was properly open). The vast parkland grounds are what make it special, featuring grassland, woodland, deer, rivers and ponds. These are lightly littered with some interesting sculptures, which would be more impressive if they weren't accompanied by ridiculous texts explaining what they represent. I should have burned that leaflet! We almost missed the monopoly hotels on sticks poking out of the water of a pond.
As we strolled through the bracken there was a section that was literally swarming with large very black and rather lugubrious flies. I've since identified these as St Mark's Flies, which apparently emerge at this time of year – traditionally 25th April (hence the name).
Down by the river (I'm not sure if it was the Severn or the Tern) there were a couple of Grey Wagtails shooting out over the water for insects.
I'm getting better at keeping those supermarket pots of fresh herbs alive and well on the kitchen windowsill. The trick is to repot them into a larger pot with some half-decent compost. However I always seem to be undone by aphid infestations. I have a lovely bushy basil plant right now but it's literally crawling with aphids so I suppose it'll have to go in the bin. Either that or I accept that the basil on my pasta will be contributing protein as well as leafy goodness.
At least it makes an interesting subject for some macro photography! So it's out with the Sigma 105mm macro lens and my tripod and away we go. I have a couple of tips to impart, with photographic evidence to back them up.
When you're doing macro work the tiniest movement can ruin the photo. And I do mean the tiniest amount of movement. On the left is a photo taken by simply pressing the shutter button, which has come out disappointingly blurry, whereas on the right I've used both a 5 second self-timer and a delayed exposure: a feature of the Nikon D300 where the mirror goes up then it waits another second or so before actually taking the picture. Note that both these shots are taken with a sturdy tripod and the same exposure settings (1/10s, f11).
The picture on the right is clearly sharper. This is because the vibrations from my hand pressing the shutter button and from the reflex mirror flipping out of the way have had time to die down before the picture was taken. This is a crop at 50%, so there's even more detail to be had at 100%. A good way to appreciate the ever-present vibrations, even when working on a tripod, is to turn on Live View on the camera and zoom right in to 100%. You can see the jitter due to vibration right on the LCD screen of your DSLR, and just how much it is affected by simply touching the camera or tripod.
Here's another shot, with an evil looking beastie in the middle and a cute little one at the bottom.
[Incidentally, this is clearly the best title for a blog post I've ever come up with.]
Finally, to finish off my posts on Rye Meads nature reserve, the butterflies. It was a beautiful spring day and there were a fair few about, mostly the species shown below. I took all of these photos with an 80-400mm zoom lens at the 400mm end which can only focus about 6.5 feet away as a minimum. I think they've come out remarkably well, and this approach has the advantage of not having to get really close to the butterfly, scaring it off as you might with a macro lens. Maybe I've stumbled into a brilliant new butterfly photography technique! Remember that as always you can click on any photo for a larger version.
This is a Comma butterfly, notable for the shapely edge to its wing. It's known as a Comma because of the small comma shaped mark on the underside of the wing, but you'll rarely see that.
Next, an Orange-tip butterfly on a Dandelion. The name is fairly self-explanatory. For the plant as well frankly.
And finally a Peacock butterfly, with the classic eyes on the wings to scare off predators. I somehow overcame my terror and got close enough to photograph it with as much detail as a 400mm lens at 6.5 feet will allow!
See my first and second Rye Meads posts to get up to date with the action so far. It's thrilling, honestly.
This is the last set of birds, with butterflies still to come. A bumper crop today, starting with a female Pochard (at the top) and more excitingly, a Lapwing. It's not especially rare, though it was the only one I saw at Rye Meads, but it's clearly quite an exotic looking winged beast and I hadn't seen one before. Apologies for the poor photo – it was a long way away,
Next a pair of Gadwalls – male on the left, female on the right. It's really very similar to a Mallard in most respects, especially the female which is most easily recognised as a Gadwall by the nearby presence of the more obvious male! And it lacks the blue/green flash on the wing of a Mallard.
Here's a pair of Cormorants on a perch on a raft. If only I had something further to say about Cormorants.
Finally, what I believe to be a Kestrel – one of a pair that were soaring high above, perhaps as part of a courtship ritual. It's hard to be sure with these birds, especially if you're me and lack practical experience in the field, but I think that the single black bar on the tail makes it most likely to be a Kestrel, having studied the book long and hard. If you think different, please let me know in the comments!
Some more photos of the range of interesting bird life at Rye Meads. See my previous post for the first instalment. There's still more to come, bit by bit. It took me a while to figure out what all these things were as I'm new to it, so I don't want to swamp my dear readers (both of you) with too much at once.
First, a twofer! That's two for the price of one. At the top a male Gadwall, and at the bottom a Coot collecting lumber for a nest I imagine. I have better pictures of both male and female Gadwalls to come in a later post.
A Greylag Goose (actually a pair of them) flew overhead and I managed to get a half decent shot.
This taxed my powers of identification but I'm now certain that it's a female Tufted Duck. Comparing it to the male in my previous post it's quite different, though there is a suggestion of tuftiness still.
Finally a Pochard, which on the day I was confusing with Shovellers, but on reflection (picture pun intended) it's clearly quite different.
Bank holiday Monday and it looked like the skies might clear for the first time in the long four day weekend. So off we drove to Rye Meads wildlife reserve near Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire – a slightly strange split between RSPB and Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust. It's also right next to the Rye House go-karting track where Lewis Hamilton apparently learnt his craft, and I've been karting many a time. So I can highly recommend this spot on at least two counts!
Just a very quick report for now: it's a fairly large place with loads of lagoons, ditches, reed beds, ponds etc. and 11 hides from which to look out for interesting things. A couple of notables below (but more to come).
First up, a lone Redshank. It took a bit of leafing through the book of longish billed wadey things to figure this one out.
Next, a tufted duck – this is a male. The female is all dark and without the obvious tufting on the back of the head.
An Oystercatcher, with it's very colourful bill. Apologies for the poor sharpness of this photo. It was probably at least 50m away.
Finally, a Shoveller – a duck with a great big spade like bill. More interesting sights to come…
It was a bit of a miserable grey day today, punctuated with rain. So an imperfect opportunity for a stroll to Verulam Park in St Albans, but we went anyway. There were herons with chicks to be seen on the island in the middle of the lake, a grebe, swallows swooping around and the usual less exotic bird life. Here are a couple of highlights. You can see two ugly Heron chicks in the nest below.
A brief expedition with macro lens in the evening light. It's all springing up out there.
