When the shed at the bottom of the garden started to rot and offered more liability than protection for the kid’s bikes I was forced to buy a new one. Eyeing the dilapidated panels of the old shed I decided there was sufficient good wood to construct a rudimentary bird hide. After installing a few bird feeders, some tall shrubs and various branches to act as posing places I had a bird feeding station.
I used a 400 mm lens, sometimes with a 1.4 times teleconverter and I positioned the birds just beyond the lens minimum focusing distance.
Just a few hundred hours in the hide and I had a reasonable collection of garden bird photos.
I learned something interesting about feeding birds. If you, as I was, are troubled by squirrels stealing the seed, depriving the birds, and adding loads to your weekly seed bill, then help is at hand. If you coat the seeds in a strong chilli oil neither the squirrels nor any other rodent will eat the seed. A bird’s palate cannot detect the strong oil and they seem quite unaffected by the coating.
