Loch Bhac 07 Aug 2015
A productive day with Jimmy. Some evidence of Caenis spinners and shucks, plus a few sedges, and a ecent number of spruce bark aphids (a new one to me this year).
A productive day with Jimmy. Some evidence of Caenis spinners and shucks, plus a few sedges, and a ecent number of spruce bark aphids (a new one to me this year).
Urban peregrines! Right at the foot of my road – didn’t even know there was an eyrie there. My neighbour heard them and pointed them out to me. Couldn’t get very close, so had to compromise with a crop sensor and x2 extender on my 100-400 mm lens. Rather higher ISO than ideal at a forced f11 wide open. Adult male on a high perch. One young still in the eyrie, and the other out on some superstructure. Pigeons all around them – don’t seem to recognise what they are.
Tricky on Eye, but some nice fish to be had. Plenty sport on Shin. Highlight was the mayfly hatch on Craggie – our best yet. Mostly stayed with dries – can’t cover risers with the dap!
An inch of rain fell in an hour, mid-afternoon. That seemed to put the tin lid on what had been some good activity.
Thursday morning, July 2nd, 1 a.m., the pyrotechnics started. I got up to have a look at it – see if there was any lightning strike I could have a go at photographing. There were! I went and got the camera, then got the tripod, then got the remote cord, then set it up, then had a think about settings. Then put in the settings. By the time I had it set up, the rain had come over and most of the lightning was above the clouds.
However, there was still the odd flash coming down. So, I stood there firing off 4 second exposures, trying to capture one. I was probably going something like 4 sconds on, 4 seconds off, 4 seconds on, 4 seconds off… It’s amazing how many of the flashes came during the offs – nearly every one. One of the best examples of Sod’s Law I’ve ever experienced.
Finally I got a good one, only to find I’d missed it off to the left, as the storm had moved round while I had been standing there firing off shots for the last half hour. I repositioned the camera and continued, but by now the storm was on the way out, and there wasn’t much more in the way of action. Here’s the best of what I got.
Took time off from fishing to visit the famous Italian Chapel
Jimmy, Dougie, Alex and me this time. Fishing decent, given it was late June and the temperature was never above 11°C.
A day with Jimmy, looking for mayfly feeders. A few on dries and one on the dap.