At the end of June I recently had a great day at Dean Mason’s woodland hide and reflection pool. It is set up for photographers to enable us to take images of wild birds as they come into feed and for the water. Dean has a good set up, thinking of the birds and the photographer. The hide is at the edge of a meadow with trees on one side so the birds are not out in the open as there is a local Sparrowhawk who would take advantage so at least they have cover.  It was great to see Dean after his long illness and looking well! I had great fun practicing my photography in the comfort of the hide and the birds didn’t disappoint. 

I had the hide for the day on my own so it was relaxing and enjoyable just watching the birds and of course a couple of Grey Squirrels. It’s always different according to the season. I caught a time before many birds went into moult and there were a few fledglings about. This time the Greater Spotted Woodpeckers were the stars, Dean says he knows of at least four active nests close too and I was able to take fledglings and parents feeding their young, so nice to be close to them. Plenty of Jays about who squabbled with one another but the Woodpeckers were in charge and sorted out the Jays, which surprised me.

There was quite a selection of birds coming in as the gallery below shows, I had booked for a winter shoot but it was postponed because of Dean’s illness so I’ve booked another for next February which I’m looking forward to as Dean says he gets many birds in the winter including Redpolls which I’ve never seen.

Just a few of the images I took on a lovely day.

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