The alarm was set at 4.15am but I was awake long before the music “Insomnia” kicked off my waking routine. Early starts are a necessary evil if the early bird wants to catch the preverbal worm. Within 20 minutes, the dog had been out and I was ready to leave with a hot cup of coffee in a thermos. My destination was Middleton Lakes RSPB where I wanted to photograph the wildlife. The lakes are easy to get to from the M42 and there was no traffic at that time of the morning. Passing the Aston Villa Bodymoor training grounds I reached the lakes and parked the car. There was a lovely mist over the meadows and when I passed over the canal there was a dreamy quality about the air. I was the only person around and had the place to myself.
Then there was the decision, the wetlands or the woodlands. I am glad I made the decision to visit the lakes. The Canada Geese were taking turns to set off on group flybys In the lake, I saw fish jumping out of the water to catch insects on the water. I saw a heron and other birds which I need to identify. The butterflies were waking up and enjoying the sunshine. I moved onto the meadows to see if there were any owls hunting. Whilst the owls were not out the Konik ponies were moving around. I walked around the meadow and came close to the riverbanks where there were several dragonflies and damsel flies. I was not quick enough to catch the dragonflies but the damsel flies were more sluggish. The sun was warming up the vegetation and my landscape picture was selected for the main BBC weather photograph. One downside is that there were many midges around and I found later that day that I had picked up many insect bites that persisted for several days afterwards.
If you enjoyed this visit to Middleton Lakes RSPB then please read my previous blog.
