For a very long time I've wanted to set-up my own bird feeding station. Sounds straightforward enough, but not having a garden has meant it's been pretty tricky to find somewhere suitable. Thankfully, I've kindly been allowed to set something up on some private land just 10 minutes or so from home and over the last few weeks have been getting a feel for the location as well as setting up some feeders and perches. It only took a few days for the birds to find the food and since then it seems to be doing the job with blue, great, long-tailed, marsh and coal tits, nuthatches and great-spotted woodpeckers all making visits. I wasn't entirely satisfied with the initial positioning of things so made some changes at the end of the week ready for this weekend, including setting up a pop-up tent which I'm testing as a hide. I had a few hours on Saturday morning to see how things would go and am delighted to report success! Whillst there are still some tweaks to be made, I've already got some good results, my favourite of which is an adult great-spotted woodpecker. The tent is comfy enough, if a little low down in terms of shooting angle, but so far so good and I can't wait to have a full day shooting here. With autumn really kicking in now, I'm desperately hoping for some of the local jays to start visiting. In the meantime, here's that woody!

Great Spotted Woodpecker