The Nights Draw In
Another selection of shots from the woodland around Birkacre Lodge this week (also known as Yarrow Valley Park to those not old enough to remember when it was the derelict remains of an important part of Lancashire's industrial history). These images were taken over two consecutive evenings and are not in chronological order.
On the first evening I'd decided to explore a piece of woodland just outside the park and accessed via a gate you pass while driving into the car park. This turned out to be a very scrubby bit of woods. The OS maps showed a path leading through it, but it was very indistinct and criss crossed with brambles (I have the scars to prove this). I spent the best part of an hour trampling around this rough bit of woods and didn't really manage to capture anything I liked other than a couple of shots I took on my way back out from just inside the gate!
From there, with about 20 minutes to spare before sunset, I moved over the North shore of the lodge. I managed to grab a nice shot of some ivy covered trees before a passing gentleman told me there were currently fish jumping the ladder at the weir. The weir is a bit beyond the far edge of the lodge from where I was stood at this point and it's a pretty big lodge, but I reckoned, with a brisk walk I could get up there while there was still some light.
Of course, the current health and fitness issues made that a challenge and by the time I was about half way around the lodge the shin splints had kicked in, making every step painful. Fortunately along the way, I came across a gap in the trees that line the shore and revealed a burst of colour above the trees on the far bank. This gave me all the excuse I needed to stop briefly and take a quick shot, two as it happened, after which, it was back to painfully trudging around the lodge.
Eventually I reached the weir. It was pretty dark and there was no sign of any activity on the fish ladder or the pool below it. I hung around for about 20 minutes with the camera sat on the tripod filming the ladder. The footage from this looks nice in spite of the failing light, modern cameras are quite incredible really, but without any fish on the ladder it's kind of boring.
On my return visit the next night, I spent my time exploring the woods around the North shore. There's actually quite a bit more woods there to get into than I thought, so I'll hopefully be able to take a deeper look in there over the coming weeks, but I did come away with a couple of interesting images showcasing the changing colours.
I rounded this 2nd evening off with another trip to the weir. There was a bit more light this time, mainly because I was there earlier, but still no fish to be seen. A large Heron (probably, could have been a Pterosaur given my limited avian knowledge) seemed to be vascillating between the weir and the lodge, so I think it knew something I didn't, but it never settled long enough in any one spot for me to get a shot of it. Those things can do some crazy acrobatics though for such a large bird.
Gear for these trips was the Z8 + 24-70 f/2.8S(MKI) and the Nikkor 70-180 f/2.8, although I don't think the latter was used in any of these shots. All Birkacre images were taken on a tripod.
It's All Gone Yellow
