Reflecting upon the calm

Whilst venturing a walk around Trentham Lakes I was inspired to take a photograph of the dingies moored out on the water. The calm and serene nature of the lake allowed a clear reflection across its whole surface.

Seagulls were flying low over the water and their reflection was only a metre or so below their position. I was fascinated by the way they controlled the height of their flight above the water to keep the reflection at a constant distance below, from my standpoint. The black headed gulls are very precise fliers. They seemed to be delighting in the pleasure of flying in formations of three or four birds, occasionally settling on the surface or perching in a branch out on the islands.


The gulls had the water today, there were very few ducks and the herons were not to be seen. One formation that did catch my eye was a duck flying in formation with a pair of gulls. The birds were flying close and it seemed that the gulls were pacing the duck, matching its speed and height very accurately. This made the poor duck look a very clumsy bird.

As we progressed, a plumb of smoke was seen to rise above the opposite side of the lake. The King's Wood was closed for clearing operations and it seemed that there was a wood fire in one of the large clearings. The lighting and the position of the sun being low in the sky gave the column of smoke a very strange glow as we looked across at it.