Hi this is one reason i don't go there at weekends any more. Unfortunately its the same faces most weekends. maybe they need to think about putting a member of staff in the hide and not allowing people "camp" for long periods.
Is it easier during the week? I was at Rye Meads in April on a Friday and there were only 3 of us in the hide at about 10:30AM. Or is it the same weekdays now the Kingfishers have young? I couldn't decide between Rye Meads and Fowlmere last Friday and decided on Fowlmere (where I did in fact see a lone Kingfisher) but I thought I might try Rye Meads again after the school half term week on a Friday or Monday.
Sorry to say Christopher Y but you are not going to like this reply, we are all paying members and are all entitled to the same privileges, some of us can get out of bed in the morning, if you can't or won't that is your problem, why should we have to move for you, instead of complaining to the staff get up earlier or buy an alarm clock, I myself drive 30 miles each way to get there and I am always there before it opens, often before the staff arrive, we are not camping!!!! I am well aware that this post will upset others, sorry but it needs to be said.
Alan, if people want to see one species of bird that is their choice, the issue is people can't get out of bed in the morning, don't expect to go to any popular reserve,walk in late in the morning and get a seat, if you want to get an special image, do what others do and work for it .
Ray I'm out every morning at 5am (including this morning) including out in the rain and have Kingfishes on my patch but that wouldn't stop me having a bit of consideration for someone else and at least giving them a chance to have a glimpse of one.
I wonder how long it would take for you to post like Christopher if I lived closer and turned up every morning at opening time with half a dozen mates and took the same seats every day, all day.
Christopher if you are ever up near Sheffield give me a shout there will always be a seat here for you.
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Ray K as a professional wildlife photographer I find your comments inappropriately boorish. It is simply good manners, let alone sharing the pleasure of wildlife watching with others, to allow other visitors - whether photographers or not - access to viewing points. The distances you travel and the hour you arrive at in no way supercede the need for courtesy in such confined spaces as hides and most certainly do not afford you the right to dominate a viewing position for as long as you choose to occupy it. Your suggestion that sitting in a sturdily constructed, comfortable hide in Hertfordshire is "working for it" made me laugh - you clearly haven't lugged a 600mm lens around the ice floes in Antarctica or suffered Tiger Leeches draining you of blood whilst you are looking for Orang Utangs in Borneo's muddy jungles. Try and take a more charitable view of the situation and you never know but, in my experience, Mother Nature will reward you tenfold for your kindness.