How not to use my hides.....a professional guide to avoid my idiocy

Lesson One

Don't get up really early and make a massive effort to turn up under the cover of darkness, forget a crucial piece of equipment go home and on the way back to the hide see one otter, one eagle, three buzzards and numerous crows all disappear into the distance from where you should have been all along! Luckily most of them did come back by some miracle, except the eagle.

Lesson Two

Don't fall asleep, really don't fall asleep, in fact just stay awake, otherwise the above otter may have finished feeding by the time you start taking its picture. Thank goodness I still got 20 minutes with it but I had not idea how long it had been there for.

Lesson Three

Don't forget to charge battery, or more importantly don't think that it probably will be a pretty sparse day so you don't need a full battery and thus at the end watch what would have been the very best picture of a buzzard backlit in sparkly light 6m from hide and not be able to take the picture. Your penance is to sit with the battery under your armpit to warm it up so you can at least get some images for the 4 hours in the hide you had to spend there.

Lesson Four

Don't forget to pee before entering hide. Otherwise you will have to perform some funky ninja, yoga cross manoeuvre to avoid peeing on the hide, the camera equipment and not get seen by the buzzards 10metres away. All done by the way!

Lesson Five

Don't forget you have kids and have to pick them up, but not wanting to scare the birds away from the hide, you will have to use your lunch box as a flying decoy flung from the back of the hide. All ended well as back in time!

Even having made all these gaffs I had a total blast and I am loving the images I managed to get in just one morning, showcased above. To be fair this is 3 years, 2 storms and 2 rebuilds down the line but definitely worth it.

I hope your adventures in the coming 2021 will be slightly better organised and less stressful than this was but equally as fulfilling.