Woodland Hide
At the beginning of March I visited a pre booked woodland wildlife photography hide in County Durham belonging to Nigel Miller (find him on Facebook). I had seen others sharing their images including Nigel himself on Facebook of birds captured from this hide which regularly receives visits from Kingfishers and Sparrowhawks - I just had to get in on some of that action! I contacted Nigel and he helped me find a date suitable and arranged to meet him at 07:30 for a short walk to his private hide which is situated in a woodland next to a bend in a river.
The setup was fantastic, basically a wooden shed covered in camouflaged netting with holes for camera lenses to poke through, Surrounded by various perches and feeders. Nigel explained which birds usually visit which feeders and what times of day certain birds usually like to visit as well as behaviours to look out for. His knowledge was great and a real help once he had left me to it. The hide was mine all day if I so wished and I could leave whenever I wanted. Sometimes depending on species such as Buzzards a hide may require you to enter in darkness and leave in darkness so that the Buzzards never see you and get spooked. No such worries at this hide however.
Within minutes the female Kingfisher arrived, There had been considerable rain over the last few days (it was raining today too!) which meant the river was high and fast flowing making fishing a bit more difficult for the Kingfisher so it came in to the hide for food. The setup was a tank with some of the same fish the bird would normally catch surrounded by a couple of perches. The bird would come in to a perch, dive for a fish and then head off to eat it and digest it. Generally the Kingfisher would return around once an hour. Such stunning birds and lightning fast! I loved the Kingfisher perched on the “no fishing sign” shot!
Whilst keeping eyes peeled for the Kingfisher returning I was also kept busy by the abundance of woodland birds coming in to visit the feeders. A variety of seeds, nuts, mealworms etc were placed at various spots to attract different birds. I saw a few visits from a Jay as well as a visit from a Great Spotted Woodpecker which I always find thrilling to see!
Blue Tits, Great Tits, Coal Tits, Willow Tits were all very frequent as well as Bullfinch, Chaffinch, Nuthatch, Siskin, Robin and Blackbird. They were coming from all around and made amazing shots on their various perches. I was trying to capture the birds looking as natural as possible before having a bill full of seeds which you usually only have a split second to do!
Just as the Kingfisher returned, I was trained onto it ready to capture some shots when all of a sudden it screamed and sped off…The female Sparrowhawk had arrived! An absolutely stunning bird of prey which had landed on a dead pigeon and began feeding straight away. While the Sparrowhawk is around everything is quiet and still. All the other birds keep their distance as they try to stay off the menu themselves.
After a good feed the Sparrowhawk headed up into the trees to clean its feet and its amazing hooked bill. A while later another Sparrowhawk arrived, this time a juvenile. The arrival was notified by all the other birds quickly scarpering and giving out an alarm call to signal danger to all the others.
I was a bit torn on my way to Durham with the rain lashing down, I was thinking how typical, but in actual fact I got some nice atmospheric shots and it didn’t affect how often the birds where coming into the feeders etc. Some nice shots including the raindrops on the Sparrowhawks back for example made me happy. I had a fantastic time just sat chilling in nature and would love to get back up to Nigel’s hide for another go in better light and weather for yet more different shots.
The hide cost me just £65 for the day which I thought was great value. Nigel was a great host and left backup feeding supplies just in case more was needed. If you are interested in doing this type of hide photography then I recommend looking up Nigel Miller on Facebook and sending him a message. I will certainly be back at some stage!
All images copyright to Graham Perkin