Alastair Swinnerton

So, the day has come when I finally felt up to walking along the road to the bottom field gate, across the front field and down to the river. It’s not the greatest river in the world, or the prettiest, but it’s my river, and I’ve missed it. The front field is a lot more rutted than the one behind us though, which is harder on the legs, and the back as it turned out, but I was determined to get down there. The main thing was that it was OK in the lurching stakes – there was a bit of lurching, certainly, but nothing seemed to hurt, so all good. It’s been two and a half weeks or so since my operation, and things do seem to be healing, slowly but surely.

I didn’t go all the way along the field, only about half way, to the bend where we’ve seen the Kingfishers – I know, I said I’d try to leave them alone, but I didn’t go right up to the bend, only near enough for my telephoto to catch a shot, should they appear. They didn’t, of course.

I took my old 55-300mm this time – a bit heavier than the even older 55-200, but still carryable it seems – just in case of Kingfishers. However, I’d forgotten why I stopped using it and bought the Tamron 18-400 (still too heavy to carry yet) – the 55-300 is incredibly slow to focus, and not terribly sharp, and not great at macro at all, with a minimum focus distance of what seems like several metres. However, having said all that, it didn’t do too badly, with the help of a little post-processing…

Housefly on Dandelion

Honey Bee on Dandelion

Bumblebee on Dead Nettle

Beautiful Demoiselle (actually its name)

A rather dischevelled Peacock butterfly

Female Orange Tip butterfly

I’m particularly happy with the Orange Tip – I’ve never managed to get a shot of one before, as they never seem to stay still long enough.

There were a lot of birds, or rather, I heard a lot of birds – Chiffchaffs, Wrens, Dunnocks, Robins, all singing away, but none of them poked its head out of the greenery. I did see a Jay over the river, but it really didn’t want to be photographed, and I surprised a wading heron, but by the time I got the 55-300 to focus, it was half way across the field.

There were several Buzzards overhead as well, but they were very high up…

And so, with one last look at the river, it was time to head back home again.

All in all though though, a successful walk, and hopefully I can get all the way along the river to the other end of the field tomorrow – and hopefully my new 18-200mm lens will arrive in time!