7.30 am - Early birds with Insomnia meet at the metal bailey bridge approx 2 miles east of the Elan Valley visitors centre, 20 metres due south of cross roads - look out for green park metal sculpture waymark, pull in over bridge. Likely target species, dipper, grey wagtail, outside chance goosander, even remoter chance otter. OS grid reference SN950666
9.00 am for 9.30 start - Elan Valley Visitor centre for relic oak woodland. Target species displaying wood warbler, pied flycatcher and willow warbler. Outside chance species redstart, garden warbler, blackcap, tawny owl, tree pipit, and common woodland birds. Note there is a ticket car park charge of £1 - OS grid ref SN925646
12.30ish lunch at visitor centre
Afternoon as people want either long lunch natter, Elan river or more of woodland or anything else I can locate on the Friday recce/day late moorland migrants possibly
2.30 leave for Gigrin for 3pm feeding. OS grid reference SN979678
I am getting slightly concerned at the lack of response to this organised event. As of now I have 1 confirmed attendee for Gigrin Farm, which goes against the trend of previous years and is somewhat surprising to say the least.
Can I please request that anyone intending to attend the trip AND go to Gigrin let me know as soon as possible so that I can inform Chris of the hide space we need.
Eric - I am counting your party out for Gigrin purposes at present
Mike has been kind enough to arrange this.
Whilst I appreciate that there is still 2 weeks to go we have to give Chris at Gigrin enough time to let those places we have booked and will not need; and I don't mean 2 days notice, 2 weeks would be better.
Please If you want in these specialty hides please reply soonest, preferably before next Monday (26th April) .
Hi guys
I am a member of a Student Photographic Society here in the Limerick in Ireland - the UL Photo Soc - http://www.photo.ul.ie - and we are hoping to come over for that weekend - planning on getting into Fishguard on Friday afternoon and staying around till Monday.
We would love to come along to the shoot on Saturday if that is ok with everyone - I was talking to Mike about this and I hope that it is ok . I am awaiting a confirmation on numbers here now at the moment and once I get that - hopefully by weeks end - I can update the details here.
I know that this is probably not the place to ask but if people have any suggestions for something for us to do on the Sunday could they message me please - we are not from around the area but would be interested in some wildlife or landscape shots and will have a car and are not afraid to travel .
Thanks in advance
Kevin
Posted by Mike Smith on April 28, 2010 at 10:55 AM
As intimated by Tom above I have now made the final booking arrangements with Chris. I am expecting a maximum of 6 plus myself to attend Gigrin in the afternoon, so I have booked three spaces in the Gateway and 3 spaces in the Tower hides ( I will make do with whatever remains available). As per previous years the rationale is to split the cost and allow different photography styles during the day by rota between the two hides. This works out at £12.50 per person at present inc. the general entry fee. Had we had a better take up this cost would have reduced....
For those attending the day for the first time I will be setting out various live food feeders in the Elan woods on Friday 7th May so I will have no web access from Thursday afternoon. If you need to contact me for any reason after this my mobile phone details are in the photographers listing.
If you are intending to cover the river Elan I strongly recommend you bring either some foam to sit on or better still a small tripod camping stool, its a hard old wait sitting on the stoney bankside.....
The Elan valley element of the trip is a walk through relic oakland woods on a path that zig zags up the hillside. Whilst the there are no hides, with carefull fieldcraft most people come away with decent images. Therefore camouflage or subdued clothing is recommended as are stout shoes. I will bring a certain amount of camo tops/scrim material if you need to borrow some, but please think about the photography you will be doing here ie no brightly coloured teeshirts or jackets please!
The path winds its way up the side of a hill and gives excellent tree top views so there is a good chance of displaying pied flycatcher and redstart at eye level. We time this trip quite carefully to ensure the passerines are in but the Oak leaf bud break is not too advanced, with the cold spring and the state of the oak trees at home I am expecting a fairly open tree canopy again so any Wood Warbler display photography ought to be good. (Search on Wood warbler on the NPN UK site for many examples of excellent shots taken by attendees in the last few years)
The Elan Valley vistors centre has a decent cafeteria and associated toilet facilities so hot/cold drinks and food are available on the day ie there is no need for a packed lunch or flask of coffee. A reminder there is a £1 parking charge by ticket machine at the visitor centre.
Recommended camera equipment for the day, - a minimum of 300mm lens if using a crop sensor camera or 500mm with FF DSLR body, but as is the case with any bird/nature photography, the longer the lens "reach" the more opportunities you will create on the day.
Mike - as always a big thanks for the effort you put in to organising the day at Elan and at Gigrin. Hope you all have a great day there and, for those staying longer, a great weekend.
Discussion
5 replies9.00 am for 9.30 start - Elan Valley Visitor centre for relic oak woodland. Target species displaying wood warbler, pied flycatcher and willow warbler. Outside chance species redstart, garden warbler, blackcap, tawny owl, tree pipit, and common woodland birds. Note there is a ticket car park charge of £1 - OS grid ref SN925646
12.30ish lunch at visitor centre
Afternoon as people want either long lunch natter, Elan river or more of woodland or anything else I can locate on the Friday recce/day late moorland migrants possibly
2.30 leave for Gigrin for 3pm feeding. OS grid reference SN979678
Can I please request that anyone intending to attend the trip AND go to Gigrin let me know as soon as possible so that I can inform Chris of the hide space we need.
Eric - I am counting your party out for Gigrin purposes at present
Mike has been kind enough to arrange this.
Whilst I appreciate that there is still 2 weeks to go we have to give Chris at Gigrin enough time to let those places we have booked and will not need; and I don't mean 2 days notice, 2 weeks would be better.
Please If you want in these specialty hides please reply soonest, preferably before next Monday (26th April) .
Cheers
T
I am a member of a Student Photographic Society here in the Limerick in Ireland - the UL Photo Soc - http://www.photo.ul.ie - and we are hoping to come over for that weekend - planning on getting into Fishguard on Friday afternoon and staying around till Monday.
We would love to come along to the shoot on Saturday if that is ok with everyone - I was talking to Mike about this and I hope that it is ok . I am awaiting a confirmation on numbers here now at the moment and once I get that - hopefully by weeks end - I can update the details here.
I know that this is probably not the place to ask but if people have any suggestions for something for us to do on the Sunday could they message me please - we are not from around the area but would be interested in some wildlife or landscape shots and will have a car and are not afraid to travel .
Thanks in advance
Kevin
For those attending the day for the first time I will be setting out various live food feeders in the Elan woods on Friday 7th May so I will have no web access from Thursday afternoon. If you need to contact me for any reason after this my mobile phone details are in the photographers listing.
If you are intending to cover the river Elan I strongly recommend you bring either some foam to sit on or better still a small tripod camping stool, its a hard old wait sitting on the stoney bankside.....
The Elan valley element of the trip is a walk through relic oakland woods on a path that zig zags up the hillside. Whilst the there are no hides, with carefull fieldcraft most people come away with decent images. Therefore camouflage or subdued clothing is recommended as are stout shoes. I will bring a certain amount of camo tops/scrim material if you need to borrow some, but please think about the photography you will be doing here ie no brightly coloured teeshirts or jackets please!
The path winds its way up the side of a hill and gives excellent tree top views so there is a good chance of displaying pied flycatcher and redstart at eye level. We time this trip quite carefully to ensure the passerines are in but the Oak leaf bud break is not too advanced, with the cold spring and the state of the oak trees at home I am expecting a fairly open tree canopy again so any Wood Warbler display photography ought to be good. (Search on Wood warbler on the NPN UK site for many examples of excellent shots taken by attendees in the last few years)
The Elan Valley vistors centre has a decent cafeteria and associated toilet facilities so hot/cold drinks and food are available on the day ie there is no need for a packed lunch or flask of coffee. A reminder there is a £1 parking charge by ticket machine at the visitor centre.
Recommended camera equipment for the day, - a minimum of 300mm lens if using a crop sensor camera or 500mm with FF DSLR body, but as is the case with any bird/nature photography, the longer the lens "reach" the more opportunities you will create on the day.
Mike