One afternoon when all was quite in our lodge I hopped on my bike and headed out for a ride to the bird hide. It is not uncommon to see blue tits, bullfinch, woodpecker and of course pigeons in the hide but I had been told that badger, red squirrel and even deer had been spotted here. I wasn’t so lucky that day but I spent quite a lot of time watching the small birds enjoying the feeders that had been put up for them. I just wished that I had packed myself a snack and brought a bottle of beer like my companion in the hide. It might have kept the cold away a bit (or made my camera handling a bit wobbly).