In the thirteen years that I have been wildlife watching, I have always found myself sticking to home turf. Maybe it is because I am not quite prepared to make solo trips further afield; slightly nervous to push further out of my comfort zone, but I have always found Wiltshire to contain so many fantastic wildlife spectacles that I have not always felt the need to step past the county borders.

For a while I have spent time watching wildlife in various habitats, from ancient woodland to some of the counties only pockets of heathland but there has always been one particular world that I had not yet delved into until recently, that habitat was the world of freshwater.

The world underneath the surface to me had always been an environment that I could not really explore properly, sure you could watch wildlife as they go about their lives in and around freshwater; the first spring amphibians returning to breed, and dabbling ducks skating across the water’s surface, but to stick a camera in and get my own footage or photo of what lives down there was something I had to try.

On one birthday, I received a GoPro Hero 8 as a gift, finally I had something that I could use as a way to observe what lived in the freshwater that I had local to me.

Naturally, the first body of water I investigated was the wildlife pond that had been created a couple of years prior, GoPro in hand and armed with a long pole to keep it safe from being lost to the depths, I proceeded to gently push it below the water surface, down past the surfacing pond plants and out of view. I kept it there for at least 10 minutes before deciding to bring it up so I could examine the footage and see what has been calling the pond home, uploading the footage onto the laptop I began the process of examining the several minutes of footage that I had been eagerly waiting to see.

After the sediment kicked up by the camera had settled, many pond species began to pop up one by one and show themselves. At first it was microscopic daphnia that seemed to drift through the water like dust in the wind, and then other aquatic invertebrates began to emerge.

Pond snails effortlessly climbed strands of hornwort, while freshwater hog louse; a type of aquatic crustacean, sifted through the mud on the bottom hoovering up any organic matter that it came across. Damselfly larvae were also present, these larvae would soon metamorphose into stunning large red damselflies that would take flight in April, but for the time being, remained as one of the ponds perfect hunters, lying in wait for passing prey.

A couple more minutes went by just watching all the invertebrate activity when a stunning male Smooth Newt slowly glided into view, this was back during the early weeks of spring, and most male newts had already adopted their breeding colours and sported beautiful crests which are used to entice females. The individual in this video was no different, stunning crest and visible blue and red colouration on the underbelly, the male slowly swam in and out of view with the encounter lasting no more than just a few seconds but I was all the more content with what I had captured and was already preparing the camera to go again for another attempt.

Since I started capturing footage of freshwater wildlife in the pond, I had created a picture of near enough all the species that would regularly be found within and around the water, and had even found species that I had previously thought to have gone ‘extinct’ in the pond such as Ramshorn Snails so named due to the shape of their shell which closely resembles the shape of a ram’s horn.

The footage I had gathered from the wildlife pond was a brilliant insight into ‘underwater filming’ and I then turned my attention to larger bodies of water such as ponds, rivers, and canals. Particularly, the idea of filming freshwater fish was extremely appealing as this was something that I had never attempted before. Luckily, I had family members who had several years of experience fishing and in doing so had gained a wealth of knowledge about the various species and their habits. This meant that I would be able to learn about the ecology of the species local to me and attempt to film them without causing major disturbance.

The first place we visited was a place called Caen hill locks, a series of 29 locks on the Kennet and Avon Canal. Between each lock, fish often get trapped inside until the locks are opened to allow boat traffic to pass, as each lock is opened the fish are then able to disperse along the canal. The bonus of attempting to film the fish here was that the fish could often be found temporarily trapped in the small area of water between the locks, once these were opened, the fish have the ability to disperse along the canal. The first step was to lower the camera down into the water, an action that was difficult due to the height of where we were standing and the water level which means that we had to come up with an interesting method of getting our camera in the water safely.

Using a fishing rod and line, we were able to lower the camera down into the water all the way to the bottom, as we were unable to see what we were actually filming; and hoping that we weren’t spending a good 10 minutes filming the floor, it was a task to keep the rod still to ensure stability whilst the time period spent filming elapsed.

Lifting the camera up with care, there was a sense of excitement and anticipation; mostly by me. This was my first time trying to film freshwater fish as a pure amateur, and I stood there with both fingers crossed in the hopes of at least seeing a fin. Playing back the footage, it was a completely different world then what I experienced within the pond I had been filming back at home, here there was an almost lack of vegetation which was instead replaced by barren silty sediment and rock covered riverbed.

Skipping through at least five minutes of pure nothing we finally were able to see what we had been waiting for, out of the blue, or in this case the murky green the bright red fins of a Perch came into view. Perch are a predatory species of fish feeding on a wide variety of other aquatic species including other fish, crayfish, and aquatic invertebrates and are easily identified due to their red fins, red tail, and dark black tiger stripes along both sides of the body. The individual in this video was seemingly curious about the reflectiveness of the GoPro’s underwater housing which must have resembled the flash of scales from a smaller fish, a potential meal for a hungry Perch.

Whilst our curious friend was observing the camera, a different species lurked within the background. A singular Roach was drifting around and was slowly moving back and forth almost as if it too was intrigued by the sudden appearance of the camera in its domain, Roach are members of the carp family, a medium – sized silvery fish with deep reddish fins and can often be confused with Rudd which strikes a close resemblance but can be differentiated from the former thanks to a couple of distinguishing characteristics.

Leading up towards the final few minutes of the video, the Perch which had been eyeing up the camera for a good five minutes eventually swam out of frame leaving the Roach on its own however this was not to last for long.  Within a minute of the Perch leaving the frame, an entire shoal of what could have been thirty to forty Roach quickly emerged from the gloom and moved in what was almost perfect synchronisation before disappearing off camera as quick as they came. This was a pretty impressive shoal due to the volume of water that they had available to them, and it is very likely that they had been trapped in here as locks were opened and closed to allow canal boats to pass.

I shut the camera off extremely happy with what I had achieved, I had finally filmed fish in their own environment after seeing it being done by professionals many times before. But to do it with the equipment and amateur skill level that I had, made it all the more worthwhile.

It is now a goal of mine to keep improving my skills at underwater filming and photography so that I can share more about the life that lies underneath the surface. The next time you walk past any body of freshwater whether it’s a pond, lake, or even a small stream, stop for a moment to watch and also to learn more about what lives in and around the waters of your local area.

Our freshwaters are under a wide range of threats such as raw sewage pollution that gravely impacts the ecosystems and the wildlife that lives there, and if action is not taken soon, then we could lose one of the most vital habitats that we have.