Day 7 at the hide and the results

Up early again today to get to the hide before sunrise. Earlier start than last time as it starts getting light by 6 in the morning. Again the car was frozen which is a good sign as it means its going to be a good day. I suppose I am going to have to get used to getting up this early, as I will to do this regularly when I finish my degree.

Got to hide about 06.30 just after sunrise, however the sun doesn’t hit the feed station till around 0730 so all is ok. Fed the birds and got into the hide instantly the two willow tits came to feed and also the neighbourhood was alive with bird noises, with the Nuthatch being the most vocal. In under 5 minutes the Nuthatch arrived to feed. Have decided today not to deploy flashguns as the light is good throughout the day, and I found that the flash guns do not help the image quality in my opinion they hinder it. I set the ISO to 400 if only I had a Mk4 I could set it to ISO 1000. Nothing much happening and the light is not there yet. It is in the top canopy and it is still rather cold. It was minus 2 when I got the the farm. I decided to go for a walk to check out the new fields that Martin has told me about. He said that he saw some lizards in there. I decided to take the camera as well as just my luck I would see something and not be able to photograph it. Found the fields and it seems quite interesting. I think this could be the barn owls hunting ground, will have to check it out at dusk sometime. As the sun was still rising the light was really good. In the new fields were the mountain ponies that they look after. The light on the horses manes was quite interesting so I took a few shots. I also did see two swallows flying around, they must have just come back from Africa. Also the other day I saw a load of frogs' spawn in some of the pools on the farm, they have now hatched and they are tadpoles I will keep a good eye on this to see if I can get some pictures of the little froglets. Check out the link to see how long their life cycle is.

http://www.tooter4kids.com/Frogs/life_cycle_of_frogs.htm

Back to the hide now for a days photography.

Aftet getting back the feeders were more active with the 3 nuthatches comeing in all the time. The one is being very vocal I think it is the juvenile calling for its mother. I intend if possible to get some images of it singing as it would make a good image.

Today I tried some different things. As I do not have the 500 with me I will try to capture some of the birds in their habitat as it can make some interesting shots at times, and it also puts the image into context. Over the last couple of years Andy Rouse has started to do this and his photography has become more sellable and appealed to a bigger audience.

Results

Interesting day today with a few new birds seen in the forest. These include :

A treecreeper looking for bedding material for his nest. This the bird was probably doing as this is the mating season of most birds.

A Redstart. This was an interesting find as I have always wanted to see one of these - such a beautiful small bird. After doing this I went on the Carmarthen birding site to see if there were any seen near by and they have been seen in the RSPB Reserve DInas just up the road.

A male and female Pied Flycatcher, this was probably the best sighting of the lot as this is a migrant bird and not seen in many locations. Fingers crossed it will be seen again this time so I can photograph it.

The usual suspects.

The nuthatch very active today I wonder if they have got more young as they seem to be frantically feeding. The woodpecker is getting closer and closer by the day and also he has got used to the hide as he no longer is getting spooked when the camera is going off. The other thing I have done here is to put the screens down so that he can no longer see me, and as the lens is camouflaged as long as I move it slowly there should be no problem.

I noticed today the Blue tit and the Great tits are not so active. Maybe there is enough food in the forest for them now. I did read yesterday that feeding stations are really active in the winter and early spring.

Grey Squrirrel is also getting used to me as well as he seems not to be bothered by me either. Last week he would run a mile if he saw me at all.