With the easing somewhat of the Covid restrictions, this was my first outing in earnest with the camera.

I had originally booked to go up to Hawes to film the red squirrels with wildlife photographer Paul Fowlie back in early 2020, unfortunately due to the Covid pandemic and subsequent restrictions on travel etc that visit kept being cancelled until today.

It was quite an early start this morning leaving home at approximately 6.45am for the drive up to Hawes. It was a tiring drive up the A1, hitting the rush hour traffic at the Selby junction through to the Wetherby turn off, fortunately after the York intersection the traffic eases up considerably and it was a steady comfortable drive up to the Leeming Bar turn off onto the A684 to Bedale. From Bedale to Hawes in the heart if the Yorkshire Dales is a very pleasant drive, passing through Leyburn and West Witton, two lovely villages. I arrived at the Countryside Museum car park just after 8.15am where I had arranged to meet Paul. Prior to Covid we would leave one of the cars in the car park for the day and travel into the woodland in the other vehicle, but today we had to take both vehicles.

On reaching the site it was a steep and steady five-minute walk down to the hides from where we had parked the cars. This time of year around early Spring, it can be very wet and the ground soon gets waterlogged, fortunately today and for the past few days it had been quite dry which made for much easier, comfortable walking.

I had two cameras with me this morning, one with a ‘one to four hundred’ telephoto lens on and the other with a 500mm lens with a 1.4 times converter, which gave me some flexibility as the squirrels appear in shot from all angles and distances in front of the hide.

By the time we reached the hide It was a slightly overcast with the sun breaking through the trees at intervals during the morning. The squirrels were being just as cheeky and inquisitive as I remember them from my last visit back in 2018.  I found it quite strange being behind the lens of the camera again but soon got used to all the dials and functions on the back of the camera.

After several hours in the spacious ‘Woodland Hide’ I moved over to the ‘Reflective pool hide’ a smaller two man hide  overlooking a reflective pool, for whatever reason the squirrels weren’t showing at all well but this was made up for by the abundance of bird life which visited, Pheasant, Great Tits, Robin  and Chaffinch  were very frequent visitors, along with Coal Tits and Blue Tits all coming in for a sip of water and some of the nuts which were put out for the Squirrels. Just before I finished filming a Greater Spotted Woodpecker flew out from under the undergrowth and perched on the otherside of a dead tree stump, no sooner had it landed than it flew over the hide into the undergrowth behind me.

To round the session of after lunch I spent a pleasant hour or so filming a tiny wood mouse that was living in one of the stone walls adjacent to the hide, it certainly had a hearty appetite and the way it was stashing its food I presumed it was feeding its small family hidden deep in the confines of the dry-stone wall. A great day filming and being amongst all the wildlife, I ma just checking my diary to see if I can get another visit in before the end of the year. Thanks, Paul, for a Great day’s filming.