Exploring my local nature reserve.

After more just grey, dull weather, the sun is peaking its face out once more, so I head over to my local nature reserve (for the very first time), Granllyn Pool, in Guilsfield for a little photography outing.

Now, I didn’t actually know this place existed until recently, I was perusing the internet looking at houses for sale, in the area, as you do, and on the maps view, I saw the Granllyn Pool Nature Reserve marked. So I did some investigations (aka googled it) and saw that it was a Woodlands Trust site, and that there had been some Goldcrests photographed there this year.

Now parking here is limited (there is none), but you can access the site from Folly Lane as well as a cul-de-sac called Celyn Close. I chose to park here and then walk to the site.

The site itself is very small at just over 8 acers in total, there is a little woodland walk that leads you to a bird hide, as well as a walk around part of the pool (this leads you to the Celyn Close access point).

Having arrived and studied the site plan, I decided to head off on the woodland walk to get my bearings and see if I could find a nice location to set up and photograph. I set off towards the back of the housing estate first and here there were a few smaller birds flying really high up in the trees, so I decided to carry on and see if anything else was around.

As the site is tiny, I was at the other end of the woods in no time, and here there was a lot of birdlife in the trees, however, they were right on the edge of the wood, which backed onto a garden, and I felt that trying to photograph here wasn’t really appropriate, with my 200-600 mm lens looking right at their house, so I carried on.

The bird hide, was just around the corner, so I gave that a quick investigation. The hide is set quite high up away from the water, so I sort of dismissed it as not really what I was looking for, however, in hindsight, as the hide had openings on all sides, I could have used it to focus on the woodlands, and when I go back, I will be doing that.

As I had looped the site very quickly, I decided to head on towards the boardwalk, to see what was down that side. I passed some more woodland, as well as a small apple orchard, which was bustling with black birds and made my way to the boardwalk, where there was a lot of bird action.

A Great Tit perched amongst the trees.

My very brief encounter with the Goldcrest.

There were both blue and great tits here, and I also got a glance at the Goldcrest! It was a way off, in the trees at the edge of the island, and moved around like a tiny rocket, so I wasn’t able to get any images of it. However, due to the activity at the end of the boardwalk, I decided that this would be a good place to hang out and set up my tripod and gimbal. This allowed me to take the weight of my arms, and get more steady footage, as well as be able to use a slower shutter speed, and thus reduce my ISO a bit (obviously, the sun had had enough for one day and disappeared not long after I entered the site).

The tits, were whizzing around the trees here, and it was hard to find a set-up that was clutter-free. While I love these first 2 images, the branch in the foreground is quite dominating, and other than adding a mega crop in post, there isn’t much I can do about it. However, I am really happy with how the blue tit stands out, so in future, I need to be more aware of my fore/background so that I can avoid this (which is hard as I have no say over where the birds are landing…).

After a short while, I had another Blue Tit land in the tree and am pretty happy with the framing of this one, as the foreground branches are much less dominating.

While at my post, I noticed some birds that I had not seen before (well not seen in person) off to my right, some Long-tailed Tits, they were much more skittish compared to the Blue Tits, and I only had the briefest of moments to capture my images. Now while there are a couple of wayward foreground sticks, that I would rather not be there, I am quite happy with my first images of these birds.

I stayed at my chosen spot for about 40 minutes, watching the birds go about their day, and there is one image in particular that I got, which I am really happy with, of one of the Blue Tits, sitting on a small branch.

Unfortunately, the Long-tailed Tits nor the Goldcrest made any more appearances, so I started to head back towards the orchard, and decided to set up on the corner just off the boardwalk, as I could stand between 2 trees, which I hoped would screen me enough to not bother the birds.

I got tantalisingly close to the Goldcrest once more, but it buried itself deep within a coniferous tree, but it wasn’t to be this time with that particular subject. The weather did now take a turn, with some drizzle coming in and the wind picking up a bit, I did get an image of a Robin and one of a young male Blackbird, yet to get his yellow beak.  

I was starting to get cold, standing in the wind, so after 30 minutes, I headed towards the woodlands and set up near an oak tree, where I very quickly, was able to capture one of my favourite images from the day, of a Blue Tit on one of its branches.

While I was here, I also spotted a mystery (to me) bird, which now having processed the image, I believe to be a Fieldfare.

I decided to head back towards the hide as there is a lovely bench located close to the water here, there were loads of Blue Tits here, making their way through the trees on the opposite side of the pond, as well as onto some willow (I think) that were a bit closer by. I was hoping that they’d get a bit closer to me, but they stayed away, and I was able to get some wider, environmental images of them on the willows.

In total, I was out for just under 4 hours, and I had a lovely time, with my belly and the cold calling me away. I had a wonderful time at the Granllyn Pool Nature Reserve, and will definitely be coming back, to try and create some more images of the Long-tailed Tits, and the elusive Goldcrest.