I am a member of the Forest of Dean Camera Club and lots of the members know we have a wood and that I have constructed a hide in there. Several of the members have visited and made use of the hide. This week it was the turn of a good friend and member of the camera club.

To cut a long story short it was one of the least interesting sessions I have ever had up there, I can list what we saw. Great Tit, Blue Tit, Coal Tit, Nuthatch, Robin, Chaffinch, one Crow and one Great Spotted Woodpecker. That was it in over 3 hours.

Obviously my friend was aware that any wild life photography is luck and on the day you may be blessed and some days are not so good. But I was disappointed, had I been on my own I would have lived with it but when you have bought someone else along with the prospect of Buzzards, Ravens, Kites, Foxes and three types of Deer, and none of these make an appearance, not even a Magpie or a Jay, then it was not good. Friend was very magnanimous and grateful but I was not happy. OK move on. This was the only photo I took on this visit.

Thursday I went up again on my own. Well how different, loads of birds and particularly Buzzards, four different individuals, and often two on the ground at the same time and briefly three at once.

I was there about 4 hours and I would estimate that for at least two hours of that period Buzzards were in view, often on the ground and at one point one was sat in a young Silver Birch very close to the hide. Half-eye as I call her was on parade quite early on, last time I saw her she was looking quite old and bedraggled with what looked a grey head however this time that was gone and presumably a moult had taken place and she looked quite fine.

I did see some peculiar behaviour, there were lots of Magpies about, the Buzzards seem reasonably tolerant of them but on several occasions a Magpie would sneak up behind a Buzzard and pull at its tail feathers. Even on a couple of occasions when the buzzard was perched up on a stump the Magpie would fly up and try to peck at a tail feather. This only provoked a mild reaction from the Buzzards and no feathers were removed or damaged in this activity. It seemed almost like a game of ‘dare’ by the Magpies.

An activity which I want to get a good shot of is the buzzards having a go at one another, this occurred three time on Thursday but on two occasions the encounter was obscured by trees or stumps and on the one occasion where it was in full view I had my camera setting too close so I clipped the wing tips off. One day I will get the shot I want.

Another first was to see a Buzzard using what we call the ‘Special Branch’ ( a dead tree specially erected near the feeding area to attract the birds and provide good photographs)

There were lots of other birds about this time and it was such a shame that Thursday’s activity could not have been reversed with Tuesday’s so that my camera club friend could have had a good day. Oh well another time so ‘that was the wood this week‘.