Just recently down at the local patch I have been getting the urge not to spend a lot of time in the hides. Something about crisp sunny mornings and the comings and goings in the trees, bushes and reeds along the paths around the reserve that have made the insides of the hides seem like gloomy places compared to outside.
In the hide you sit there (admittedly seeing more species) in the dark cocoon looking out into slits of bright warm sunshine and somehow as soon as you enter the hide you have removed yourself from nature and become a mere passive spectator from your closeted surroundings.
So on the last few visits and especially this morning I spent very little time in the hides and while my note book pages for both these days may be a little sparse in species in comparison to entries from days spent in the hides it feels a whole lot more satisfying to me, and is it really about the numbers anyway?
I did drop into the West hide for half an hour just to see what was around, but with two chaps talking about what was where around the country at the moment and 'have you seen this and have you seen that at such and such a place', which is fine, but it all sounded like busying everything up too much and that's not for me. Maybe I'm a plodder in my own locality but chasing off to see something for 5 minutes or as is more often the case 'not to see it', is not my bag thank you and I daresay on the flip side some would go stir crazy in my chosen limited space.
The Green Woodpeckers seem to be following me on my strolls around the reserve with their characteristic 'laugh' probably when they see me looking for the Redpoll and a couple of Jays seem to follow me around with their harsh rasps. The Great Spotted Woodpeckers are everywhere with their hammering and every path has it's own ChiffChaff and Cetti's calling, while the trees are full of the comings and goings of Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Green finch and all the Tits. Blackbird hop across the paths beaks stuffed with nesting material and robin perch red breasts resplendent to proclaim their territories. I didn't get to see the Redpoll again this morning and they will be off soon but I did see four or five Sandmartin speeding over the water on the East side which made up for it. Of course the visit there passes too fast and it is time to leave all to soon, but at least it wasn't all spent in the dark interior of a hide and while my list may be shorter and my photographs of nothing out of the ordinary, I feel good...
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