January is always a cold month, except, it seems, for this year which is more mild than ever with lots (and lots) of rain. But finding myself on a dry and sunny day, (yes we had one!), I headed down to Knypersley Reservoir for a walk and a few photos of the wildlife.
Knypersley reservoir is just outside the town of Biddulph in the Staffordshire Moorlands, North Staffordshire. It is part of the Greenway Bank Country Park. There are two lakes at the site, the reservoir (or Knypersley pool) and the serpentine pool. The reservoir was designed by Thomas Telford, built in 1827, and supplies water to the Caldon canal. The inflow to the reservoir comes from the Head of the Trent which forms at the top of the moors above Biddulph.
I will do another walk and a more in-depth blog about Greenway Bank Country Park as it has some interesting features including Gawton's well & stone, the wardens tower and the waterfall on the head of the Trent.
For this walk I stuck to the pathway which runs around both the Reservoir and Serpentine pool . I parked on the lower car park, (three word co-ordinates provided below), located next to the reservoir and walked around the reservoir which is about 1.3 miles, (continuing your walk to take in the serpentine will add just under a mile to your walk). There are lots of benches around both pools for the opportunity to sit and observe the wildlife.
The wildlife is varied and you should see lots of different tits & finches, grebes and cormorants on the pools & lots of squirrels!
The light was beautiful on this walk and taking a pic of the view was a must.. I only had my telephoto lens with me but these trees made for a beautifully simple shot.
My aim of this walk was to get some different pics of robins. We have all seen the regular pics of robins sitting in trees, this time I wanted something a little different and by shooting into the light it gives the photograph a little different lighting without not knowing you're looking at a robin.
My first attempt was ok but there was nothing special about it. I do like however like the light on the eye and the feather details just under the beak. The branches at the back are a little off putting but the branch that the robin is sat on gives depth and a lead in.
My second attempt, although not clean with the branches etc., is by far my favourite. There is just more of an atmosphere about it. The light around the robin is beautiful and the bokeh balls - which I'm reliably informed are 'on trend' at the moment - (they are the balls of light you can see under and to the right of the robin) are lovely. if only the sky was clear of the branches behind but I can't really control that whilst out walking.
Just after taking this robin picture I heard some rustling from the undergrowth behind me. Expecting to see a blackbird shifting leaves around I stood quietly for a moment observing. It was a little vole, a tiny little bundle of fur with its little eyes staring back at me! I was worried that maybe this little creature should be hibernating at this time of year but on reading they prefer to live in the warmth of undergrowth than hibernate. Just look at him/her, so cute!
Standing and observing quietly for a while always pays off, here you can see the vole munching its way through a leaf..
On the return to the car park I noticed a pair of Mandarin duck's. This photo shows the more colourful male. These ducks were originally found in China, Japan, Korea and parts of Russia. It is thought that the birds we have here have either escaped, or been deliberately released from captivity in the UK.
I hope you've enjoyed reading about my walk.
If you like what I do then please consider buying me a coffee, (it's like giving me an electronic tip and helps to spur me on to create further content). Thank you.
To order a copy of any of the images in this walk please email me HERE and will get back to you as soon as possible, thank you.
Date of walk - 13/1/2022
Three Words location of car park - bounding.venturing.best
Comments