The Hide at Ipswich - End of an Era
Over the last 27 years, I have been very fortunate to have permission to have a hide on private land.
The opportunity for this came about after a chance meeting with someone at a camera club talk. After the talk, someone in the club came up and asked me if I had any pictures of Foxes ? `Only one or two ` was my reply, to which he informed me that he had Foxes coming in his `garden`. If I wanted to come around to his, I could probably get some nice pictures.
To be honest, when he said `garden`, I did not get very excited. The thought of a nicely mowed lawn with flower beds in the background, would not have made particularly exciting pictures. What he had not told me was that his garden was in excess of 7 acres, and quite a lot of it was growning fairly wild.
When I eventually went around to have a look at his `garden`, I realised how much potential the site had. I asked him if I could set up a small canvas hide, and try to get some pictures of the Fox to which he agreed. I say `Fox`, but in fact there were three families of Foxes living quite close to the area, and they regularly came into the wild area of the garden.
On the first evening I saw a Fox , and although it was a distance away, and quite wary, it was exciting to actually see one. Over the next few weeks this Fox became used to the hide and came amazingly close and I was able to obtain some great pictures. Often there would be more than one Fox, and one occassion I had four Foxes in front of the hide at once ! Which one do I photograph ?
Although the main target at this location was Foxes, there were lots of birds in the area, so I asked if it was O.K to set up and a bird table and some feeders. The owner of the land was quite happy for me to do this. Lots of different birds started to come to my `feeding station`, and I obtained shots of both Great Spot and Green Woodpeckers, Jays, Magpies, Stock Doves, Pheasants, Song Thrush. Mistle Thrush, Blackbirds, Robins, Chaffinch`s as well as Blue, Great, Coal and Long Tailed Tits.
After a couple of month it became obvious that this was going to be a long term project, so I asked f it would be O.K to build a wooden hide rather than using the canvas hide. The owner said that was fine, and I constructed a hide large enough to take two tripods. That way I could set up two cameras with different focal length lenses.
Over the years it has provided me with loads of fantastic pictures, and I am indebted to the owner of the land for allowing me to use his land. He never charged me a penny for the use of the land, and providing that I gave him some of the pictures I had taken there, he was quite happy. Unfortunately, all good things come to an end, and I have decided that the location has run its course. There are a lot more houses surounding the area now, and there is not the amount of bird activity there that there was 10 or 15 years ago. So with a heavy heart, I have decide to call it a day.
Many thanks to Ian and Anne for allowing me to have the free run of their `garden` over the last 27 years. I am very, very grateful. I have spent many happy hours there photgraphing the wildlife.
These are just a few of the hundreds of images I have taken over the years at this location.
