Hungary for Birds - Day 4: Big Bird Bonanza

I woke in the middle of the night to a familiar sound from the UK, that of heavy rainfall outside. Its looked like the forecast for the fourth day of being less than favourable weather was going to be correct. I drift back into sleep for what seemed like a moment before the alarm clock burst in to life. A couple of coffees later and we were waiting in a puddled filled car park under grey skies to be collected for the day's photography in what was known as the 'Egret Hide'.

A short drive later and we came off the main road and bumped our way along a dirt track across the grassland plains. A small tree line in the distance marked our destination and as we drew near a number of large birds took flight and glide off to land several fields away. In the middle of the grassland was a small muddy pool approximately 60 metres long by 25 metres wide with two hides set at one end. One of the hides was only used for winter Crane photography and we took up our position in the other.

Each of the hides in Hungary has its own specific set of rules to prevent disturbance to the birds. The rule for this hide was that you couldn't leave it until our driver returned in the evening. He pointed to a bottle and bucket in the corner and we were told to use as the call of nature demanded.

I am going to split this day across two blog posts otherwise it will be a post with a huge number of images from what proved to be another very productive day in Hungary. For this first post I will concentrate on three of the day's species Grey Herons, Great White Egret and Spoonbill. The others I will save for my next post.

The pool in front of us had been emptied of birds by our arrival, so while we waited for their return Gerhard decided to have a snooze to catch up on some sleep. The repeated early mornings were starting to sap our energy levels. It was not long before the first bird swooped in in the shape of a Grey Heron, then another appeared and another until there were seven birds poised in motionless stances around the pool.

A large black shape glided across the surrounding plains and came in to land like a stalling barn door, the first Black Stork had arrived. Over the next 5 minutes this was joined by a further 17 young non-breeding Black Storks ranging in colour from young to adult plumage together with 5 White Storks, A Great White Egret and a Spoonbill. The small pond was now very crowded with these large fish-eating birds looking for breakfast and they all went on an early morning fishing spree. This was not a good place to be a fish and Crucian carp of between 15 to 30 cms in length were being pulled out all over the small lake.

It was interesting to compare the different fishing techniques of the birds. The storks walked purposely up and down stabbing the water to the left and right until they made contact with a fish. The herons stood motionless waiting for a movement in the water at which to lunge their attack. The spoonbill waded up and down the lake scything its long bill backwards and forwards through the water until it made contact with its scaly snack. The Great White Egret just followed the Spoonbill around and chased it until it dropped the fish it had just caught. As you can imagine given this high density of large birds the inevitable squabbles broke out between birds whenever a fish was caught. Hopefully you now have a picture in your mind of the scene so I better post some photos starting off with a familiar bird from home, the Grey Heron.

We had brief heavy showers through the day.

Another carp bites the dust. I have not seen a heron stab a fish like this before but when you have three Black Storks in pursuit any method of carrying the fish away to safely eat will do.

It was good to finally get up close to a Great White Egret. I have seen these birds on a couple of occasions in the UK, and they have successfully bred here  the first time this year in Somerset. Hopefully a sign of greater numbers being around in the future. I have also seen these birds in Mallorca, however on both occasions they have always been a little distant for my liking. On this occasion they were often too close being right in front of the hide, so that all you could fit in frame was a head.

Preening those long breeding feathers during a brief down pour.

They are elegant looking birds in flight.

Spoonbills are another bird I have seen in the UK but only at a distance that is too far away to photograph. Again I had an encounter in Mallorca with a young bird which provided my first photographs of this species. I am not sure what it is about Spoonbill but I must admit I find them very appealing birds. The Spoonbill that visited the Hungarian hide was in full breeding colours with a yellow tipped bill, red and and yellow throat patch and apricot coloured shoulder band. There could have been three Spoonbills but this bird made sure no others used the pond by chasing them away every time they tried to land.

Again this bird came incredibly close, unaware of the photographers concealed behind the one-way glass of the hide. It was great to see that amazing ridged paddle bill in close-up.

Despite the weather it was turning in to another special day in Hungary. For me the real star birds of the day were the Black Storks, a species I have only previously admired in zoos, and which will be the main focus of my next post.

Balearic Spring Day 8 - A Golden Ending

Our final day on Mallorca. We had booked an evening flight to give us as much time as possible on this wonderful Mediterranean island and decided it would be a fitting end to finish the trip where we had started and bring the trip to full circle. The marsh at S'Albufera had been kind in showing its wealth of avifauna during the proceeding days and had generated some indelible memories. It would also provide a relaxing day as we had many hours stretched out before us with the journey home. As we took the long path into the marsh for the last time, we were unaware of the very special moments that awaited us at the end of the day.

I decided to start the session with trying to improve on my efforts with Cetti's Warbler. Despite my best efforts, I didn't progress very far with this tricky species with only a couple of photos for considerable effort.

I returned to one of the hides and settled in for a couple of hours of photographing whatever birds would happen to wander into close range. Greenshank and Spotted Redshank waded around constantly in front of the hide and only occasionally distracted occasionally by a passing Marsh Harrier in buoyant flight on the far side of the lagoon.

I went for a wander to go and find some more Red-Crested Pochard to photograph and to add some images to those taken previously.

Whilst waiting for the ducks to drift in to range a Cormorant surfaced directly in front of me and quickly dispatched a Common Carp in a couple of swift moves that ended in the fish being swallowed whole.

I finished off the afternoon photogaphing some Little Egrets that looked very ornate with their long, ruffled breeding plumes as they strutted around in front of the hide.

We moved to the final location of the trip. To one side of the hide was a large field with grass kept low by an abundant rabbit population. On a previous visit we had seen a few Stone Curlew superbly camouflaged and moitionless on the far side of the field. These were some of several of these birds seen through the course of the week. They are so incredibly shy and it seems if you look sideways at one from a distance of about 1km and it will start making its exit.

As I watched a Spoonbill slowly working its way around the lake, I kept checking the field. Time was rapidly approaching the time we would have to make tracks to the airport. A movement caught my eye, the Stone Curlew were on the move. The birds that had been only seen at long range or heard calling in the night were now steadily approaching the hide. There were five birds in total which would walk then pause and then walk some more. They just came closer and closer until we were getting frame filling photographs in the late sun.

A brief display to another bird

A bird I never thought I would get to photograph was there before me, and I can't think of a a more golden ending to the week. As quickly as the birds has appeared they drifted away once more to the far side of the field. Meanwhile the Spoonbill had made its way across the lagoon as was now feeding directly in front of the other hide. I made a quick dash around and managed to catch the bird before it carried on its circuit of the lake. This was to be the last bird I photographed in Mallorca.

A small fish disappears between the 'spoons'.

Overall it had been a very enjoyable week in great company, with wonderful weather and beautiful birds. I am sure this will not be my last visit to the island of Mallorca. Please drop over to Steve Rounds Blog where you can see some more images from the trip.

Now I have to start on the backlog of UK images that have built up since the trip. The Mallorca trip took much longer to post here than I would have liked so thanks for bearing with it. I am hoping to increase the frequency of blog posts in the coming weeks to bring everything back up to date. There are plenty of memorable images of birds waiting in the 'wings' and I hope you will follow me on my spring search for birds in the western oak woods, on upland moors and across expanses of crop farmland.

'Balearic Spring' Day 1 - Heading South

I was expecting a wake up call from the the alarm at 3 am and so I was somewhat startled by being roused from my slumber by the telephone ringing. Alarm clock failure is not a good way to start a journey when you have a flight to catch. 10 minutes later saw me stumbling out of the house in to the darkness with my bags to meet my friend Steve Round for our week long trip to photograph the birds of Mallorca.

The start of our journey southwards from Liverpool was remarkably uneventful and made easier by the EasyJet hand luggage policy which certainly favours the travelling wildlife photographer. This will certainly be my airline of first choice for future trips around Europe. A couple of hours later and the orange clad plane was sweeping over the south of the sun drenched island for a smooth touch down at Palma airport. We were greeted by warm sunshine and clear blue skies as we crossed the tarmac to the terminal at a time when most people back in the UK would just be starting their working day. Our passage through the airport and collection of the pre-booked hire car passed without difficulty. The Sat Nav was plugged in and we hit the road. Cars flashing their head lights as we headed up the wrong side of the road on existing the airport soon put us on the right track.

One of the good points about Mallorca is that it is relatively quick to travel the length of this small isalnd and so our accommodation in the north, near Pollenca, would only be about 50 minutes drive. As we could not check in to our villa until 3pm the plan was to stop en route and get some photography done. Well there was no point in wasting time. Given the early start and its close proximity to our villa, we decided to plant ourselves for the rest of the day in the S'Albufera Nature Reserve. Here we could quietly sit in one of the numerous hides and let the day bgently pass. I had been to Mallorca several years ago, when I was just starting out in photography, and remembered there being lots of potential photo opportunities during a brief visit to the reserve. This wetland reserve is enormous and you could easily spend many days there and this was the first of several visits made during the week. The walk in to the entrance alone, accompanied by the explosive song of Cetti's Warbler, takes about 20 minutes.

The first day was productive and not quite as relaxing as anticipated and a large number of species were photographed and a selection of these are posted below. The purpose of this first day was to get some images on the memory cards and hopefully refine the photos for different species over the coming days.

We settled down in the first hide and there was plenty of birds on view. However, conditions were not ideal as it was now late morning, the sun was high and harsh and anything at distance was partly obscured by a shimmering heat haze. As you open the hide flap the first birds that are very obvious are the Black-Winged Stilt. Very similar in behaviour to Avocets but with legs which almost border on the ridiculous in their length.

I was quite surprised by the variation in colouration of the Stilts, particularly the heads which ranged from the black markings above to the pure white in this following photo.

A bird coming in to land, after being put to flight by a Booted Eagle soaring overhead.

Close to the hide there were some low sparse rushes with half a dozen Snipe probing the muds in the shallow water. They are lovely little birds and thinking back it has been a while since I managed to put some before the lens.

Also feeding around in the mud at the edge of the reeds was a lone Spotted Redshank which was in transition between its pale winter and dark summer plumage.

Purple Gallinule were introduced in to the reserve as a conservation measure back in the 1990s and appear to have subsequently flourished. Regular readers will recall I photographed a persumed escaped bird in Chester not so long ago. These Mallorcan birds were quite different in colour and dwarfed any nearby coots or moorhens. Every so often a bird would appear out of the reeds.

These beautifully coloured birds would then stride across the open water in front of the hide to the sound of whirring camera shutters.

While all this activity was going on close to the hide an eye was kept on birds that were appearing at distance. Marsh Harrier fluttering in hunting flight across the shimmering reeds at distance. One of these 'birds' turned and started flying towards the hide and it was only as it approach we realised it was a Purple Heron. This is a bird I have longed to photograph and the close fly-by of a very well coloured bird was very welcome.

The other bird I was closely watching was a Spoonbill that was feeding at the back of the lagoon alongside some Little Egrets. This is a bird I have never photographed , except in a zoo, and I was hoping it would make its way over towards the hide. My patience was eventually rewarded.

It was interesting to watch these birds feeding as they scythe their partly open bill in broad sweeps back and forth through the water.

We decided we would have a quick look around at the other hides nearby to see what they had to offer before the reserve closed in the early evening.
The lagoon in front of the next hide was deserted but adjacent was an Egret colony. The gurgling noises from an Egret colony were bizarre and unfamilar.
A Cattle Egret in fine breeding colours perched in one the trees.

Numerous birds were flying in with sticks for nest building. We decided that we would return to these Egrets when the wind was hopefully in better direction and so just took a few photos of the in-coming birds. I will post some more of these flying Egrets in subsequent posts.

We wandered over to another hide which looked to be in a good direction for the late afternoon sun. It was fairly quiet here but it did provide us some opportunities to photograph both Little Ringed Plover, a scarce bird in the UK, and Kentish Plover at very close range.

I must admit I was quite taken by the Kentish Plover, which I have not seen before, and the males looked very smart with their rust coloured caps.

A great start to our trip although towards the end my energy levels were certainly flagging after the early start to the day. After leaving the reserve, we swung past Pollenca beach to check for Audouins Gull, a bird we would return to photograph later in the week. After a quick call in to the supermarket for some supplies we eventually arrived at the villa after a very, very long day.

I had no trouble falling asleep that night whilst being serenaded by the distant repetitive monotone hoot of a Scops Owl and occasional call of Stone Curlew. I was already looking forward to the early morning start the next day.