Nethergong Birding

With the camping season now over, I have been promising myself that I would build a few feeding stations on site to encourage some birds in and hopefully a few photo sessions in the hide. With this in mind, I have found an area on the edge of a lake and small woodland where the birds often pass through. The sun early morning rises behind the area which should make for some nice lighting although it doesn't hit the site until about 9am. I made a few visits down after work in the week where I collected a few tree stumps and have fashioned them into a small natural bird table and added a few branches as perches. Above them are a couple of bird feeders which should pull in a few birds. I made a visit Saturday for a few hours where I spent some time watching the feeding station from a distance to see if anything was visiting. The good news was that I saw Blue, Great and Long tailed Tits visiting as well as House Sparrows, Robin, Dunnock and a Great spotted Woodpecker. I returned again this morning at 7am where I soon set up the hide and spent a couple of hours watching. Whilst the sun did make an appearance, it soon clouded over meaning I never really got a chance to get photos in good light but it was still nice to be able to fire off a few shots of some of the visitors. I had added an old tree stump to the feeding station which gave me the chance to add a few peanuts in the crevices which the birds seemed to like. Plenty of visitors but in low light, photos were a challenge especially the Tits which arrived and disappeared in a flash. A Great spotted Woodpecker arrived and showed well but my photos were not that good but I'm sure there will be other opportunities. Surprise of the morning was a visit by a Jay which I managed to get a few photos of. A bird I have always wanted to photograph over the years but never seemed to manage it. Hopefully now they know the food is there they will continue to return. Whilst sat in the hide I managed to hear 2 Brambling, 2 Raven were on the pylons calling, 2 Fieldfare over calling and a couple of Water Rail heard with one even seen at the back of the feeding station briefly. A pleasant few hours and no doubt many other photo sessions in the coming weeks and months. I even saw a Kingfisher land on one of the posts I have put out along the dyke. Another challenge at some point to address. 

Jay