The pits

This has been a lot of hard work and standing around in the cold, another wildlife photographer, Andy Darrington, and I have dug a huge pit hide beside a pond at the bottom of his field, (not such hard work as Andy owns a JCB style digger) fuelled by copious amounts of tea and digestives we added a plywood roof thatched with fir tree branches and then "dressed the set" with a variety of props, an old gate, mossy logs, 3 sacks of autumn leaves and interesting perches etc. Its still a bit early and may take a while to get settled-in; but already its paid off handsomely with visiting Sparrowhawk, Green Woodpecker, Grey Wagtail, Bullfinches, two Kingfishers (not while I've been there, yet!) and a variety of other birds. Being a pit hide the low point-of-view works well, the only problem is that some of the visitors come too close, today the female Sparrowhawk dropped-in about 3 feet away, right under my camera position, I must pack the shorter lenses next visit!