First Guests – no not the mouse, Joe & Phil

On Monday I had 2 members of The Natural World Photography Society, Joe Startup and Phil Stillman book my hides, they where happy to spend their time photographing the woodpeckers and tits etc… from the main hide, they really enjoyed their time there and my set up and have booked another visit next week.Thanks Guys.
Here,s three of Joe’s photos from his visit.

Here is 3 of Pauls photos from the day, some different angles, which I really like.

I have been using camo netting to soften the background until my newly planted trees grow to replace it.
The birds do come in close and I usually shoot with a Nikon 300ml 2.8 and full frame camera and adjust the perches to suit but when Joe and Paul visited it was pointed out that with their 400ml lenses and crop senses the background was just to close so the day after their visit I moved back the camo about 12 feet which hopefully will make a difference on their next visit.
Thanks for your feedback guys all truly noted and acted on.

I have recently had a bit of car trouble, I had my car booked in for a small service and an MOT and my electric window had an issue, to cut a long story short it failed the MOT on a cracked alloy wheel which has had to be sent away for welding, the window has had to have a new regulator and a new motor so I’m not very happy on that front,will get the wheel back soon and hopefully they get all the parts and I can get it retested, but hey nobody died, could be worse at least the rains stopped.
Today Wednesday ( using my wife’s car to get there) I had a go at making some bird feeders out of some plastic waste pipe and small mesh which I bought in a large roll purposely for the job of making said feeders, here’s one I made a few weeks ago but didn’t like the design as the peanuts where going soggy in all the rain.

Here’s my latest design.

New feeders

These are made from approximately 2 foot lengths of 2 inch waste pipe, which will keep the contents dry , with the mesh wrapped around the tube with the bottom exposing about 6 inch of food, as it gets eaten it will drop down to replenish, I then sprayed them with plastic/wood paint and fitted a plug for the top and bent over the bottom.Job done,I can honestly say I am no craftsman but I do love making thing, takes me back to my Blue Peter days.
The idea is that if I am away for any long period the birds wont go without and food, as these take about 4 times the amount of my normal feeders.
Here some more I starting making with some more donated plastic pipe (Thanks Mick you know I don’t waste anything).

Weird angle I know (I took from above with my iphone as are most of these photos on the blog for convenience ) ,same principal but this time square pipe, mesh and gaffer tape to hold together, now just need painting and to find a plug of sorts to keep away the squirrels and fixings to hang up.
In theory once all these are filled I could leave them for a month.
I have also been busy making more paths around the wood so I don’t squash all the Bluebells coming up and generally doing jobs.

Still got the fence around the polytunnel to complete and the pond to landscape and….. I’m going for a lie down.