On this beautiful afternoon I used our new Hide for the first time. It is a Lenscoat Lenshide Light Weight Photo Blind Realtree Max4, together with a small collapsible stool. I went to a place I had visited before, the Santa Teresa Park in Jerez de La Frontera. This park is quiet big and still has so many unknown corners to me, that I can't say I was really well prepared to shoot decent photos.
The hide seems to be of excellent quality and perfect size to sit under comfortably. Well, at least for a short while. I don't think the little stool offers enough comfort to be seated for several hours in the same position, but that will become clearer over time.
I had put some bait, in this case meal worms and sunflower seed, to create an attractive spot and set up the hide for the very first time. I was lucky to have chosen a place that a lot of different species seemed to find interesting. I saw several Robins, Blackbirds, Song Thrush and Siskin.
I was delighted to hear many Greenfinches, a common species that for some reason I had not heard nor seen very often this year.
The highlight of the day was certainly seeing an Iberian Green Woodpecker. I had heard its distinctive call several times, but it was when I moved the hide to a different location that I saw one of them hanging on a tree. It gave me plenty of time to take a few decent shots.
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| Iberian Green Woodpecker |
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| A singing European Serin |
Taking good photos from a hide takes a lot of preparation and a lot of patience. Since I had not explored this place well enough before, it is no surprise that I did not get any close-up shots. But I did notice that some birds do not seem to realise that there is someone hiding under a cloth with a big camera.
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| Unfortunately no birds perched on the spot I had prepared |
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| Blackbird |
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| Song Thrush |
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| Robin |