Through a friend, I discovered these really professional Wildlife Hides in Leicestershire. I spent 24 hours there on my first visit, and enjoyed it so much I immediately booked to go back again two weeks later, and again several times since.
I have also visited one of his other hides on a couple of different occasions.
I have also visited one of his other hides on a couple of different occasions.
Visit number Seven
March 2023
I was hoping for some kingfisher courtship rituals, such as the handover of fish, but the female was not quite ready yet. I still managed to get some semi-decent pictures, despite the dull weather.
Visit number Six
November 2022
This was a very different event, and you can see more images from the shoot here.
Visit number Five
June 2022
I love this place so much, that I went back again in June 2022, despite the travel distance from home. This time I took a friend from the US, who loved it!
Kingfishers
Tom warned us that the kingfisher activity has been quite low recently, and not to be disappointed, he offered us half a day in the pond hide and half a day in the wired hire. We did, however, have some amazing kingfisher sightings - by the time we were packing up to move on at 10 o'clock, the bird was visiting for the 15th time!
Egrets
Heron
Moorhen
Visit number One
Ducks
The ducks were the first to turn up as we settled down to look out over the shallow pond.
Herons
Next the heron made an appearance
Tawny Owl
The owl made a brief visit to the pond hide, but the subsequent visit to the Wired Hide saw him returning again and again.
Otter
I was so excited to see the otter than I almost missed the shot!
The ducks, owl, herons and otter kept us amused for the remainder of the night.
Kingfishers
The next morning, the kingfishers were the main stars of the show., with the first one arriving just after 7 o'clock.
They dived, preened, and ate for the next couple of hours, allowing me plenty of opportunity to capture their antics.
Here's a Time-Stack I created from numerous photos of the kingfisher diving.
I also made a Time-Lapse video from the same photos.
Moorhen
Visit number Three
I returned to the Pond Hide in December 2021, and although the activity was slow to start off with (I spent nearly five hours staring at a kingfisher-less stick), the afternoon saw a few visits from the star of the show.
Grey Wagtail
The first bird to arrive was a grey wagtail. A lot of the time he was too near the camera to focus, spending time foraging right up against the hide.
Heron
Then the heron made a brief appearance
Moorhen
For a while, a family of moorhen ruled the pond.
The sun came out very briefly, turning the reeds and their reflection to liquid gold.
Kingfisher
After five hours of staring at a kingfisher-less stick, a lone female turned up, dived straight away, and left. According to Tom, this is a 'stranger', not part of the usual pair that visit, hence why she was in and out like that: this is not her patch.
From then on, the kingfishers - including the resident pair - came and went all afternoon.
Dropped it!
It was quite a dark and dismal day, so it was a trade-off between fast shutter speeds and high ISO or slower shutter speeds and lower ISO. I experimented with both.
"Ooh, that wind is playing havoc with my hair do!"
Common Buzzard
We also had a very brief visit from a buzzard, who landed in the field, sat there for a minute or two, then flew off again.
Visit Number Four
January 2022
Like last month, the weather did not cooperate much on this visit, but stayed grey and dull for the duration. Despite this, I came away with some pleasing images.
Moorhen
Grey Heron
Kingfisher
They were slow to arrive, just like last time, but by the end of the day, we'd had 13 visits with over 40 dives.
Much to our surprise, she picked up two fish!
Another double fishing, although one of them managed to get away this time.
Shake that fish!
Kingfisher flight paths
