Kingfisher

A group of us from the camera club went down to Ron McCombe’s garden in The Borders, where he has a hide and an interesting wildlife set-up fueled by a large investment in RSPB food supplies. The pond in the Blip is at eye level and needs topping up every day to counteract evaporation and maintain the healthy covering of moss and there is a large landscaped bird table – again at eye level. Both structures have food crammed into every available nook or cranny every day to guarantee that the birds show up for the paying punters. Ron, himself, spends the time brewing tea and coffee and handing out biscuits while keeping up a running commentary about which birds are about to appear, where they are going to perch and what they are going to do when they arrive.
 
The only problem with Ron’s set-up, is that the props are instantly recognisable and appear regularly in our club competitions – and worse – have won awards in competitions organized by teh Royal Photographic Society and even put in an appearance at the Edinburgh Photographic Society’s International Exhibition. Even before this visit, I had put the pop-up hide on my Christmas present list (it was the only item) and have plans to recreate both the pool and the extensive bird table.
 
Extras include some of the other species that paid a visit while we were there.