Hungary for Birds - Day 3: Reflective Bathing

We returned to the hotel after our productive first day in the Tower Hide and the plan was made for the following day's photography. Given that some rain was forecast for the day after the next it seemed sensible to try the Bathing Pool Hide. After a good meal we made our preparations for the next day. When you are on a photography trip the day does not end when you get back to hotel as there are images to download and back-up, batteries to charge, lens to clean etc. I certainly slept well that night.

An early start the at dawn saw us heading further east to an area of woodland just outside the second largest city in Hungary, Debrecen. In the UK we tend to use food to attract birds but in dry areas water can be equally if more attractive for the birds to drink and bathe in to keep their feathers in good condition. The quick draining sandy soils of eastern Hungary makes water a premium and an established pool in the right location can attract a large number of birds from a wide range of species.

I will just take a moment to describe the hide which was accessed down a short track in to the forest. The hide itself was set in to the ground in front of a slightly raised pool of around 5.5 metres in length. This effectively puts the photographer at water level. The pool tapers in width from the hide to the narrower far end, where water spills over like an infinity swimming pool. The sides of the pool were vertical with logs placed on top to create a significant height above the water. The effect of this design is to concentrate all the bird activity in to a small area at the end of the pool. A small clearing was present in the forest beyond the far end of the pool to provide clean backgrounds to the resulting photos.  Such a set up can provide perfect reflections although on the day these were disrupted by a slight breeze rippling the water surface.

Before we settled in to the hide, we made some adjustments to the set-up and laid some moss covered bark at the far end. Within 10 minutes the first birds were arriving. Like a feeding station, the birds came in waves  and as soon as the first appeared it would be joined by many others, no doubt on the basis of safety in numbers from predators like Sparrowhawks.Quiet periods in the day were therefore punctuated by frenzied photography.

The sun beamed down for most of the day creating some quite tricky light conditions as it filtered through the canopy of the forest behind the hide, keeping both us very busy adjusting camera settings to keep a grip of the constantly changing exposure values. So having given you all the background I guess its time to show you some photos of the birds which include some species that were new to me. Given the variety of birds that came through the day I will only show one of two images of each species, and I will not show all of them or this will turn into a very, very long post.

The first birds to arrive were Song Thrush which wasted no time in getting down to the important job of bathing.

The small and highly energetic Blackcap. This was a bird I was going to concentrate on this spring but never got round to it.

Taking a dip.

Usually Blackcap photography is frustrating due to the birds love of lurking in undergrowth so it was good to have them out in the open and I also managed to get my first photos of the brown-capped female.

A female Collared Flycatcher visited regularly but we only had one visit from the black and white male, which had worn  plumage and not looking its best. The male also visited late in the day when the light had become particularly tricky, especially when trying to a pied bird.

Some more familiar birds were amongst the new. These included Jay.

Yellowhammer and Great Spotted Woodpecker.

I will move on to what for me were the 'star' birds of the day. We had a brief visit from a pair of Turtle Dove, which obviously had not been given away to some true love last Christmas ;).These beautiful birds are now sadly a rare sight in the UK.

Throughout the day, we could see a Red-backed Shrike perched in the a tree at the edge of the clearing at the far end of the pool. We were both willing the bird to come in to the pool which it only did once, and very briefly, and landed along the raised side of the pool. Its not the greatest photo, and I will obviously need to return to Hungary to improve upon it :), but my first of the species which is now extinct as a breeding bird in the UK.

A bird which arrived quite late in the day was the beautiful songster, the Nightingale. A bird which I have only previously caught fleeting glimpses but know its liquid song well.

To finish off this post, I have saved one of my favourite birds of the day until last, the Hawfinch. I have wanted to photograph this bird for a long time but it is a difficult and scarce species in the UK with only a couple of distant sites where there are some possible photo opportunities during the winter. We were spoilt with young, females and males all visiting the pool regularly throughout the day.

A young bird.

Female drinking.

The more colourful males.

Sun bathing birds often look slightly strange but this is particularly the case for Hawfinch.

As this is only a small selection of photos from the day, you can see we had a very busy time. The day also brought our only very close encounter with a mammal in Hungary which I will save for the next instalment.

Supporting Cast

When I head out the front door with the camera I am usually going to target a particular species as I find it much more productive to go out with a specific plan rather to just see what comes my way. Of course while out and about I am often presented with opportunities for other species that just need to be taken. So I have gathered together a collection of birds that have been encountered on some of my wanderings this year. I have pulled together quite a number so this will be a fairly long post, at least in term of number of photos.

Earlier in the year I went out looking for dippers, on a stream local to my office, during my lunch hours. This was not wholly successful but on one trip I came across this grey wagtail unusually perched in the tree rather than hopping between boulders in the stream.

The early mornings out looking for hares produced the next three in the shape of a female Blackbird, a Song Thrush and more recently a Mistle Thrush eating some Rowan berries.

At the beginning of the year I heard about a couple of Barnacle Geese that had appeared on a local park lake. Probably 'feral' birds but a species which I had not photographed before.

During my sessions photographing avocets in the spring, one of the best looking Shelduck I have seen swam into view and so the mad antics of the avocets were quickly forgotten for a few moments.

There was some good late light illuminating the local pond on the way home one evening so I stopped briefly for this Mute Swan.

During a session looking for skylarks along the local coast I came across this male StoneChat in the dunes and a Robin along a footpath.

and to finish off a Little Egret on the local coast. I do not usually take back views of birds but thought I would make an exception for this one coming in to land.

Late Winter Thrushes

My photography opportunities have been very restricted over the last few weeks for two main reasons. Firstly the moments of good light have been few and far between as a grey gloom has descended over my local area. However, more importantly I have spent a good proportion of the time in intensive care at the side of my partner Dawn who suffered major complications after surgery. I am happy to say she came back home on Friday, but has a slow recovery ahead. Many thanks to all the people for their support through a stressful time.

I went out for a morning session on 7th February, between hospital visits, to both 'celebrate' my birthday and also take advantage of a rare opportunity for some good light. I decided to go and target some thrush species, particularly fieldfare and redwing, as they will be leaving soon and will not be around until next winter. As I have recently been taking many fieldfare photographs with the birds hopping around of grass looking for worms, I made a conscious effort to try and get the birds in some different settings. Only the first two photos of fieldfare were taken on the day, but I thought I would add the other two from a previous visit as it will be many months before I will make another post of this species

At this particular site the redwing are a much more difficult bird to approach but as usual a bit of perseverance and patience pays off. Having got some photographs of the winter migrant thrushes I turned my attention to the residents. A mistle thrush was guarding a bush with its berries and chasing away other birds from its 'larder'. On look out from its bushDropping to the ground to mop up the berries of the birds it had chased off.

Before returning to guard duty The opportunity arose also to photograph song thrush, it was turning in to a good morning with all the main UK thrush species (I am thinking of those with spotted breast feathers) being photographed.

This is not a typical composition, but I liked the shadow, and so placed the bird to the right of the frame. Listening for wormsOne bird appeared from below a bush with a snail. I have always photograph a song thrush in typical snail smashing behaviour.

It dropped the snail and then picked it back up. The bird then hopped over to the only shadow nearby that was cast by a thin post, aligned itself to the shadow and pointing away from me, and then smashed the snail and devoured the contents. I think I might have to wait a while to get the snail smashing photos, but I am sure one day it will happen.

Winter Thrushes

I have been concentrating on some winter thrushes recently. There seems to have been a good influx of birds this autumn and they certainly seem to be getting through the berry crops quickly. Many trees and bushes are already stripped clean, although they did seem to arrive early this year.

Firstly a Mistle Thrush and Song Thrush on a yew

which was also joined by a number of redwing.
It's easy to see why the berries do not last very long
No berry is safe

Finally a bird that has eluded my efforts until very recently the Fieldfare, a very difficult species to approach.