As we left the car and walked to the hide a GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER was heard drumming.
With the recent wet weather the hide, which was below ground level, had to have water pumped out of it and it resembled something from the trenches of the Western Front. When we were able to use the hide, the viewing window was just above the ground level to be on the same level as the birds when they would come down to feed.
The hide looked onto a branch covered in bird food and a pond with a log on. It took a while but eventually the word spread between the birds and they started to appear, mainly on the branch. The most striking was of course the pair of GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKERS. They were literally perched on a branch stuck in the ground maybe two metres away.
The differences between the two sexes can be seen by the red on the neck of the male - above - compared to the female - below
We must have spent nearly two hours there and took maybe a thousand photos. We talked to David and learned a lot about his life which was quite fascinating. A lot of the time was spent in silent contemplation of the beauty nature was opening up to us. Even in a place as tame as England, a place as divorced from wildlife as possible, nature still has a way of striking the soul.
The log in the pond provided opportunities for great reflections.
ROBINS are such a charismatic focus for photos, however because they are so photogenic you end up with hundreds of photos of them
As you can see we took some great photos, its just a pity the lighting conditions were so bad. With decent lighting the photos would be twice as good.
A more natural setting for the WOODPECKERS perched on a nearby tree.
CHAFFINCHES like this male feed on the ground
Also seen - but not well photographed were several COAL TITS and MARSH TITS.
They may be cute - but they're classed as pest doing unimaginable damage to our forests.
After we had taken our fill of photographs we still had a bit of time left so we went on the look out for some HARES again. We left the wood and drove around the arable fields that made up the landscape of this area of Norfolk. Again David used his HARE attracting device and this time it worked! Two BROWN HARES came racing over and stopped maybe two hundred metres away, examining us before, well, haring off.
As you can see the mist was quite strong at this point and it made the auto focus on the camera go haywire.
Also seen were three ROE DEER but again the mist was too strong to have any decent photos (the third deer was out of shot).
Also seen from a tree beside the road was my first WHEATEAR of the year and a RED KITE was seen hunting over the fields, as well as a few MARSH HARRIERS. After that we returned to the Cley car park and we had finished.
So that was it - half a day gone and the photo safari was completed. So I got a few decent images, I got some advice on camera settings. Of course the weather affected things and the bad luck to get a misty day after having booked the day months in advance, getting a slot off work, only for the poor light. David tried hard to remedy that, but it was outside of his control.
Would I recommend the photo safari? Well I had an enjoyable time and it did increase my photography skills (I wonder if I will remember any of it). I liked seeing new and different areas of north Norfolk, an area I know quite well. Maybe more pinpointing of certain species might have helped, but overall it was good and maybe worth a look if you're thinking of bird watching in the area.
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