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This prestige nature reserve in the heart of Milton Keynes is probably one of the wildest places for miles around. I always feel honoured to be allowed to go there and on a sunny Saturday in late September I was travelling in a leaky boat to see what the volunteers from The Parks Trust were up to ...
the peace pagoda taken from willen island
As I set foot on the island, trying not to fall into the lake whilst man-handling my camera gear onto the shore, the sky is blue and the sun is beating down. With me today is my friend Gemma ... not quite my assistant yet, but certainly my paduan as I'm teaching her the basics of photography with my old 20D on loan for the duration of her soon to be started photography course.
The volunteers head off across the island carrying chain saws and pick axes ready for a hard days work. We follow them over the hill and down to the other side to a rough bank and Parks Trust volunteer co-ordinator Martin explains what needs to be done. They're hoping to entice Sand Martins back onto Willen Island, and this bank is ideal as long as it has a vertical face for the birds to burrow into. Additionally, the sand spit at the end of the island ... an ideal place for rare birds such as Oyster Catchers to hang out ... needs de-weeding to give them a clear view on all sides. A team wanders off to work there and under the supervision of the goats I start to get some shots.
Gemma and I wander around looking for interesting compositions. Autumn is here and we can see a lot of the trees are starting to turn but arn't quite there. Maybe coming back in a few weeks will reveal the deeper beauty of this place, but as we have to work to the time-table of the Parks Trust we make do and start hunting for late flowers and the odd butterfly.
Sadly, there's a wave of myxomatosis sweeping through Milton Keynes at the moment and Willen Island, isolated as it is, has also been affected. There are rabbit carcasses everywhere and Martin even had to humanely dispatch a few unfortunate bunnies that were in the later stages of the disease. Very sad, but part of the cycle of life on this special little island. However, there is a silver lining in the fact that, due to natural immunity over 35% of rabbits now survive (up from 0% when it was introduced to Europe in 1952) and this survival rate is growing year on year. For those that contract it, death comes between four and fourteen days and is very painful.
No sign of the herons today and both nesting sites were completely empty, but on the plus side the volunteers discovered an almost tame Bank Vole where they were digging and kept feeding it pieces of apple as an apology for the disturbance. I got some lovely closeup shots of our little furry friend using my 500mm lens and I'm very pleased with the results.
It was heating up quite rapidly now and Gemma and I wandered back to the creek to see if the Kingfishers were around. It's virtually dried up now due to the lack of rainfall over the summer and we sat by the shallow bank focussing our cameras on the posts embedded in the middle of the remaining water. To be honest, there isn't enough water in there for fish to thrive in so I would have been very surprised if the kingfishers had turned up ... they are skitty little things.
Which is why I've been thinking of setting up a camera trap for them. ZigView do a really nice attachment for Canon dSLRs (and other makes) and it has a movement sensor built into it. So, low tripod, 500mm lens, ZigView on auto and cover the whole thing in scrim net and walk away from the creek for a few hours. As Martin said "how do you know which post to focus on?" which of course you don't ... but with anything wild and elusive, I guess you take your chances.
Would be fun to experiment with it though ... although I do wonder how to make the batteries last for a week and protect it from the weather ... still more thinking required on this one!
I'm pleased to report that the goats are doing very well and are happily feeding all over the island. They were following the volunteers around and nosing in all of their rucksacs looking for food. My little friend Jigsaw was pushing Gemma around and was using me as a rubbing post for most of the day. I kept tickling her under the chin and by the end of my time there, I really did stink of goat! A long hot shower was required to get rid of the smell!
And on a final note, it was a pleasure to welcome George and Francis to the island. This couple are well renowned naturalists who specialise in Moths and Mosses and have lived in the area since well before Willen Lake was even thought of. They have a commanding view of the water from their house and had never set foot on the island before, so it was an honour for the Parks Trust to organise a visit for them. I was pleased to be able to get some shots of them pottering around the creek investigating bark and tree stumps and thoroughly enjoying their visit.
click on any thumbnail to see the larger image
With it being a Saturday, there was no rush to leave, but as always our time is short. Martin took us back across the lake and we bade farewell to Willen Island for another few months. Apart from regular welfare checks on the goats where they get fresh bedding and food there shouldn't be any more work on the island until after Christmas now so its wild residents will be left in peace and solitude.
But I'm hoping to get back there in deepest winter to see how that season affects my favourite place in Milton Keynes. Hopefully there will be some snow next time we go, so imagine how beautiful it will look?
Watch this webspace folks!
Until next time ...
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