Handbags at Dawn

I had another early start this morning to get to Miller's Wood for 9am where I met Charlotte and Chris for a photography workshop, well I say I had an early start, but it wasn't as early as theirs!  

We met John who owns the woods and he showed us the 'facilities' which comprised a compost toilet and a kitchen which was actually very cosy with a log burner, a kettle and some seats.  He then took us to the first bird hide, gave us a few tips (he's also a photographer) and then left us for about an hour.  

It's a great set up, the different hides are positioned for the changing light throughout the day and he has everything set with bait for the birds.  In the first hour we saw lots of tits, woodpeckers and even a pheasant and we worked our way around the different hides, stopping to have a warm and a bite to eat in the 'kitchen'.  We then moved on to the bank voles - what amazing creatures they are!  They make the cutest little noise, but there were two males and whilst in this image it looks like they're hugging each other, they weren't, they were fighting.  But when I say fighting, it was more like they were hitting each other with their handbags!

After another half hour or so in the final hide, we decided to call it a day as it had been very successful, and we were starting to get cold. Thanks Charlotte and Chris for driving all that way to join me, it's been great!  I've spent the rest of the day/evening going through my photos and it's taken some time as there were over 900 - the freebie lens worked very well!  

We were going to have a Thai takeaway, but unfortunately our local restaurant is closed until Monday due to holidays, so we ended up having an Indian which was very nice.

It was difficult choosing my blip, but I decided on the bank voles as I'm less likely to see them again, and I've added a selection of birds to my extras.