This Isn’t A Mandarin Duck!
A wildlife photography blog by Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire based landscape photographer Rob Thorley Photography.
The morning found me at Knypersley Reservoir.
Today’s cunning plan was to photograph the Mandarin Ducks who were paying a visit to Knypersley Reservoir. You’ll be excused for leaving now as from the get go I’ll say I have no Mandarin Duck images to show you. I did see them. I even photographed them but I also deleted them as they were pretty bad. If you do read on though I’ve got a Muscovy Duck, and a few nice Grey Squirrel images to show you. I know that’s a bit like saying “Look what you could have won”, but it is what it is.
Anyway, a “wildlife tip off”, also known as a bit of Facebook scrolling had set the wheels in motion for this morning’s adventure. Whenever I see a post, or hear of Mandarin Ducks which are local it usually becomes plan A, and today was no exception.
The post I’d read hadn’t indicated which part of the reservoir the ducks were frequenting. Whilst I appreciate that wildlife is . . . wild by nature, and has a tendency to roam, sometimes a pointer helps. With only the general location to go on I decided to take the logical approach and started at the car park. The area around the car park drew a blank but I did manage to get a few nice images of some Muscovy Ducks, which was a nice bonus.
Muscovy Duck.
With nothing else of note to be seen I lazily got back in my car and drove the hundred yards or so to the far end of the dam. My thinking was I’d walk around towards the bridge. This would let me scan the far side of the reservoir with my lens in case the Mandarin Ducks were hanging around that area which is pretty inaccessible. The other reason for going this way was that there’s usually “something” to photograph around the bridge regardless.
I didn’t spot anything on my way around, and soon arrived at the bridge. There was nothing on the main reservoir side, but in the small pool on the other side of the bridge there were a few male and female Mandarin’s. I thought to myself “That was easy” . . . what a fool. Whilst finding them had been easy everything else that followed wasn’t.
The main challenge I was having was reach. I’ve only got the 100mm -400mm at the moment as I daren’t buy the 180mm - 600mm until Mrs T has had her Christmas presents.
Whilst it may sound like I’m quoting the Observer Book of Excuses the challenges just grew. Even in crop mode at 400mm I still wasn’t able to get the subjects to be of any significant size in the frame. The Mandarin’s didn’t really come out of the overhanging bushes for any clear shots. I was shooting from an elevated position, and whilst you’ve heard it all before . . . the light was shocking.
I ventured off the bridge to work my way around the pool in the hope that I’d be able to get eye level, and find a composition that worked, but to no avail. The trees around the pool were just too thick, and whilst I saw the Mandarin’s it was impossible to get a clean shot.
The nail in the coffin came when a group of w**kers came along the path with two large dogs off their leads, and I do mean wankers not walkers. They thought it was highly amusing when their dogs dived into the pool chasing the wildlife away. I stuck around for another 15 - 20 minutes but they didn’t come back out.
I decided to call it and headed back to the car. On the way back I scattered a few seeds and nuts on the moss covered walls to see who would come for a nibble. A Blue Tit, and Nuthatch flitted in, but the most obliging was the grey squirrel.
Whilst it was only a grey squirrel I was quite pleased with how the shots turned out, and thanks to it’s posing I even managed to knock up a couple of triptych’s.
Grey squirrel triptych.
Grey squirrel triptych.
You can view more images from my gallery of other wildlife.
