First Trip of 2023…

It was great to have a little spare time, January is always a slow time. It was my first foreign trip of the year, a place called, Up North.. Sorry no offence meant. 

With a couple of days spare I decided to book a hide just outside Durham, I’d noticed a few nice shots coming from this hide the weeks before & had a couple of species I really wanted to get some detailed shots of. I had never managed a good Wren shot, a tiny bird that loves to dart between the foliage grab grubs, exactly why I hadn’t got one, very nippy. There was also a chance of a Greater Spotted Woodpecker, as well as a reflection pool set up for Kingfishers.

As there was changeable weather on the way I opted to do two days, more chance of most of the species turning up & changing backgrounds. One thing that is important for me are backgrounds, it will either make or break an image. For me, my best images, have a background colour that works with the subject. As I was soon to find out the guy who ran the hide had a similar view.

I left home at 2.30am, little nippy & the weather was a pretty grim. Four  & a half hours later I had arrived just outside Durham at our meeting point, always like to get to these points early. A warm cab & 30 minutes spare I had time for a nap. Refreshed & raring to go, I got my clothing & kit sorted, dressed for the weather & armed with the 100-400, we made our way into the woods. If you have never used a hide, your first visit, you may think they are a little untidy, but they are just practical. The hide was located next to a bend in the river, the hide was open on two sides, the front had a raised reflection pool set with perches for the kingfishers & a diving area. The rest of the front & side, had a selection of perches, wall, moss, plenty of logs & lichen. With all the areas having been topped up with feed we were ready to go, the birds were flying in while we were setting up. Spent a few minutes to get comfy & the gear ready, everything was so close, the 600 would stay in its case today. I would be using the R5 with the 100-400 f4.5-5.6, a good combo for this type of work, close in for detail, then quickly out to bring the background into the image. This is where I realise that Nigel, the hide owner enjoyed a good background. On the opposite side of the river the guy had piled up branches of dead leaves, perfectly in line with the shots. I will admit the light wasn’t the best on either day, but with the odd break on the cloud & the dappled light through the trees, the background colour was ever changing.

The first few minutes I like to sit & watch, with six different tits, Blue, great, coal, long tailed,  marsh & willow, there was plenty of action straight away. The bullfinches were also there first thing, then nuthatch, chaffinches soon followed, then the woodpecker arrived. Time to start shooting, I started around 6400 iso, I have shot much higher, the R5 & modern software will easily cope with this. The wood pecker spent plenty of time getting the lard out of the tree bark it had been pushed into when we fed. Then the wren appeared at the edge of the reflection pool while at looked around for mealworms, I love seeing wrens, especially if they pose well, the ached back while pointing sideways. I have never manged this shot, whenever I see them they are just so nippy, here I could spend time concentrating just on getting that shot.

 The wren came in every twenty minutes or so, darting around for a couple of minutes then off, every time the wren visited the camera was straight onto it. Next the Kingfishers started to appear & so did the rain, but this just added to the image. With two mossy perches set above the pool, with a mixture of green & deep browns as the background, the scene was perfect, the rain really added to the perched shots. The first day I just wanted to play it safe, to focused on a feeding area at a time, capturing as mainly species with as many different background colours as I could, as the light changed. By the end of Day 1, I was knackered but very happy with what I had managed to capture, off to the hotel, back up the images, eat & sleep.

Day 2, after having a quick look through the images from Day 1, I was happy that I had captured exactly what I had come for. Today was going to be more relaxed day, a good day to concentrate on the kingfishers, a few more shots of the woodpeckers would be nice. The day didn’t disappoint, the kingfishers every every twenty minutes or so, with quite a few dives every visit, one dive with two fish caught. The woodpecker showed & also the wren popped up with a few more classic poses. 

By three I was done, over eight thousand images in the bag, it was tied to pack up, grab some food & head for home. Eight thousand images I hear you say, I do take a lot of images, sometimes the slightest movement of the body & the light changes, the pose changes, so I keep shooting. Out of the eight thousand, I will probably use six to nine for show, with two ending up as artworks.

Since getting back I have had a play with the woodpecker image below, just loved the colours & the pose, great bird to watch, stunning looker. Prints are available on the site, just click on the link.. Greater Spotted Woodpecker – Watercolour – Colin Brister Photography

Thanks for reading, looking forward to the next outing…