Hide at Ipswich

 

Hide at Ipswich

 

These shots are from three separate recent visits to the private hide at Ipswich that I share with Liz Cutting. My last visit was on Monday afternoon/evening, and was the longest of the three sessions - six hours in length. I do not usually do such long periods in a hide because it can be quite boring when nothing much is happening, but on Monday there was quite  a lot of activity.

. Although birds were coming for food put out for them, I wanted to concentrate more on getting shots of them using the `pond`. This is in fact a small bird bath set into the ground, and only measures approximately 3ft x3ft. It is set about 15ft in front of the wooden hide that we use.

 

Although the Green Woodpecker has been a bit of a `bogey` bird for me, I was lucky that at about 6.15pm, two juveniles came down to the pond and bathed and chased each other around for about 10mins so I managed to get a nice set of images of them.

 

Drinking from the `pond`

 

This one looks as if it is calling but I think it was just putting on some form of display.

 

A very wet Juvenile Green Woodpecker after a good soaking

 

This one landed on the silver birch log that I have positioned upright into the ground. Holes are drilled in it and a mixture of suet, breadcrumbs and ground almonds are pugged into the holes to entice it to feed. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a young Fox Cub that came to have a look around. This was taken about three weeks ago. As soon as it saw the lens that was protruding from the hide move, it ran away quickly, but I managed to get a couple of shots of it before it was `spooked`  

 

Male Blackbird with a beak full of worms that it had collected from the damp areas at the edge of the pond.

 

Male Blackbird `posing` in the pond.

 

Bathing

 

 

 

On top the silver birch stump

 

Jay

 

Jay in pond

 

After a good soaking

 

Great Spotted Woodpecker at the silver birch stump. You can actually see its tongue protruding.

 

Great Spotted Woodpecker on log

 

This adult Magpie seemed quite interested in the midges that were flying around this old log.

 

Juvenile Magpie at the edge of the pond.

 

Stock Dove

 

Dunnock

 

Adult Fox. Unfortunately, urban Foxes are more prone to catching `mange` than their country counterparts and this one shows the characteristic `bald patch` above its hind legs.

 

Wood Pigeon