We spend the next six days utilising the property’s hides to build an impressive portfolio of imagery. You can choose your hides (depending on seasonal availability) each evening before heading into them the following day.
For example, if you fancy shooting herons, egrets, storks and spoonbills from a few metres away, you might choose the Theatre Hide (which is partly underwater – you stay perfectly dry but shoot at water level with fantastic perspectives of the birds).
On other days you might like to focus on elusive woodland species such as black woodpecker and hawfinch, visiting perfectly designed perches and reflection pools, or eagles and bee-eaters against beautiful backdrops.
Mark will rotate between hides to spend as much time with everyone as possible. You can start shooting at 04:00, if you like, or have a lie-in and start much later. It’s entirely up to you. Depending on the season, there will even be opportunities to shoot overnight, with natural and artificial lighting. One hide – popular for overnight shoots – has a toilet and even bedrooms.
By the end of the week you should have built up a remarkable portfolio and hopefully learnt a few new things too.
The species you're likely to photograph varies depending on the season you travel:
Winter species
White-tailed eagle, common buzzard, spoonbill, bittern, water rail, great white egret, grey heron, great cormorant, pygmy cormorant, Caspian gull, black-headed gull, hooded crow, kingfisher, brambling, hawfinch, siskin, song thrush, jay, otter, red fox, roe deer, hare, and many others.
Spring/summer species
Marsh harrier, sparrowhawk, goshawk, little owl, red-footed falcon, black stork, European white stork, great white egret, spoonbill, black-winged stilt, avocet, black-tailed godwit, squacco heron, black-crowned night heron, Mediterranean gull, whiskered tern, hawfinch, hoopoe, European bee-eater, roller, cuckoo, kingfisher, black woodpecker, green woodpecker, great spotted woodpecker, collared dove, turtle dove, golden oriole, blackcap, chiffchaff, willow warbler, whitethroat, whinchat, spotted flycatcher, common redstart, tree sparrow, swallow, tree pipit, jay, red-backed shrike, roe deer, hare, red squirrel, ground squirrel, otter (less frequent), and many others.
