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.

Major Project The Farm and inital findings

Today's Antics.

Farm Wildlife Day 1

Today I decided to start the farm project, this I wanted to do as before when I have been on the farm. I decided that I would establish some feed stations on the farm to see what birds come to them. The location of the farm I will not divulge on here, however it is near a RSPB reserve so there should be a lot of wildlife in the area.

I decided that I would establish them in the wood next to the barns. I decided to do some scouting about around the rest of the farm, whilst doing this I found a tree that had been pecked by a Woodpecker. Excellent I thought, it was ideal for establishing a feeding station and a hide, the problem was that there are someone else's horses in there so I had to abandon that one. This will keep for the future.

I went into the ash tree plantation and found a few ideal places to establish a hide. The main concern for me was light. At the end the plantation was a clearing which was ideal. I decided to establish my first feeding station here. There were plenty of very photogenic perches there and there were many that I could put into place as well.

Further in to the wood I started to see some tracks. I think from a fox as the grass was not disturbed. Following these tracks led me to a bank which I climbed and found another tree that had been pecked by a Woodpecker. As there was a clearing there I decided to establish the second feeding station here.

After establishing them I decided to look around the farm to see what other wildlife was about that day.

I found a small roost of about 100 starlings that were flying oblivious to my presence.

I saw two Red Kites

On the edge of the boundary next to the forestry plantation, I discovered the following wildlife:

Long tailed tits

Goldcrest or a firecrest

Tree creeper

I saw a potential site on the edge of the reeds to place a hide to get shots of birds of prey with some feeding done.

And this is only day one.

I will leave the feeding stations for about 4 days and then go to check them, if they are not touched I will think about moving them up to the top of the farm.

Point to note:

After watching Simon King's programme on BBC2 about wildlife in Scotland, he said when establishing a hide two of you should go there and then one leave. He said the birds will be none the wiser as long as you are quiet.