Roaming in Romania - Day 4: Last Delta Evening

Firstly apologies for the delay in posting but there were a lot of photographs to sort through from this very productive session.

Following the afternoon siesta, the four photographers gathered on the jetty awaiting arrival of the hide boat for our last evening session on the Delta.  As we waited around 20 white pelicans flew lazily upstream to settle in an area off the main channel around 300m away. This would be our first stop off point for the afternoon session. As we stopped and manoeuvred into position I took the opportunity to take a photograph of a Caspian Gull perched nearby and a Common Tern bathing.

The area where the birds had landed was very shallow and even involved Zoltan getting out the boat at one point and pushing it to get us closer into the birds. The Pelicans put on a superb display for us over the next two hours with co-operative feeding , preening and eventually flying off to their next destination. It was both fascinating and a pleasure to watch the feeding behaviour as the birds corralled fish before plunging in together with the hug beaks to scoop up the tightly packed shoals.  A small selection of images from those very memorable two hour are below.

A moment in the feeding frenzy

A quiet spell after feeding

 Wings of an 'angel'.

The pelican is a very heavy bird to get airborne.

We departed with the birds, and only travelled a short distance further upstream, and still within view of our hotel on the island, when we came across our first Little Egret and Glossy Ibis. I was surprised by the apparently low numbers of egrets in the Delta.

The Glossy Ibis, a first for me, was such a beautiful bird that was glowing with metallic green and purple hues off its wings in the slowly descending sun.

We headed onwards in the boat and our destination for the rest of the session was to be the huge lake, where the previous evening we had seen large numbers of Squacco and Night Heron gathering towards dusk and hunting among the lilies.

Predictably it was one of the numerous Squacco Heron that we encountered first as it picked it way gracefully amongst the lilies.

As the light started to soften and reduce the Night Herons became more active allowing us the first opportunities for some flight photographs of these compact birds.

The quality of light was becoming better and better and we managed to get some of the best Night Heron portraits of the trip before the sun temporarily disappeared behind a bank of cloud.

We continued our journey across to the edge of the lake where half a dozen of the usually very nervous Glossy Ibis were oblivious our presence as the busily fed amongst the Lilies. It was a shame we had lost the sun while we were with these birds as they were being very active. There really wasnot enough light to produce sufficient shutter speed as thye jumped and delicately fluttered between floating vegetation.

Next bird in front of the lens was a juvenile Night Heron that was waiting patiently for its next unsuspecting meal to swim past.

The sun briefly reappeared between the low cloud and the horizon offering the last glimmer of sunlight for the day the was used on photographing some more Squacco Heron that were still busy reducing the abundance of frogs in the Delta.

I do not think I have put some many photographs in a blog post before which is just a reflection of how productive the Delta can be for the bird photographer.

Overall it had been a very special day in the Delta and as the sun set, and the watery landscape took on a golden glow, the small boat transporting some smiling photographers slowly made its way back through the weed choked channels to our hotel at Mila 23.

We would have one last session on the Delta the following morning before we headed to the next phase of journey, the Macin mountains. It was agreed that in the morning we would return to the first small lake where we started our Delta sessions to try and capture some more Black-necked Grebes, and of course any other birds we might happen across on our travels, in the soft dawn light.

Roaming in Romania - Day 4: The Bounty of the Delta

Sleep deprivation was now setting in as I struggled out of bed to the  4:45am alarm call on the 4th day. A customary glance across the balcony to check the weather, as I dressed, saw a group of white pelicans pushing themselves upstream on slow powerful wing beats above the incessant chorus of frogs. The untimely breakfast of omelette's went down no easier than the previous day even with a large mug of freshly brewed coffee.

We set sail and this time head off a short distance downstream before turning off into a medium sized reed bordered channel. The quiet, heavy atmosphere of the previous afternoon had departed as the skies had cleared and the Delta had sprung fully into life once more. The biological productivity of this vast wetland truly has to be witnessed to be believed. The first bird that stalled our progress was a tiny Little Bittern I had spotted but by the time the boat had back tracked it had skulked back into the security of the reeds. After about 30 minutes travelling along an ever narrowing channel, it suddenly opened out into a vast lake bathed in soft pre-sunrise light. 

Ironically the first bird species we came across was the last one we had caught a brief look at the previous evening in the gloom of dusk, the Dalmatian Pelican. This species has been in rapid decline and is now fairly scarce within the Delta. All the pelicans seemed surprisingly shy despite their huge size and this one soon took flight with the approaching boat to relocate to a different part of the lake. 

This was only to be the start of several encounters with these birds over the course of the morning. As the boat was manoeuvred towards two more Dalmatian Pelicans, we paused briefly to take some photographs of a Cormorant that was drying out its waterlogged feathers in the early sun. 

I also managed a photograph of drake Pochard, its head glowing in the early light, as we slowly chugged through thick weed beds and lilies.

We eventually got into position for pelicans from what seemed to be an increasing frequency of positioning boat instructions from the four photographers. We took some portrait photographs of the two birds in the margins while the boat drifted ever closer to the birds until it entered the invisible 'circle of fear'.

All birds have this surrounding fear  zone which once breached will cause them to put more distance between themselves and people either by walking, swimming or flying away. The two pelicans settled for the latter allowing some full frame flight photographs of these magnificent birds.

Next stop on our circuit around the lake was an extensive lily bed  which was hosting a large colony of Whiskered Terns.

We took some more photographs to add to the collection of images taken the previous morning. The birds were busy building what appeared to be precarious nests, comprising a jumble of various water plant,s on top of the lilies. Occasional a Hooded Crow would swoop in a grab an unguarded egg whilst being pursued by a noisy group of terns.

Some of the terns had obviously learnt that it was quicker to build your own nest by plundering the materials from one of your neighbours. After a prolonged stay with the terns we headed across to an channel on the far side of a lake where a Pygmy Cormorant was drying off. I always think there is something very primitive in the appearance of these birds and it is quite easily to visualise the reptilian ancestry. 

We left the lake through a narrow channel and sailed through the weed-chocked waterway for around 20 minutes before entering a small lake. Zoltan, our guide, had brought us here to photograph Red-necked Grebe, a new species for the camera and one I was hoping to encounter during the trip.  A pair were present with the bonus of two chicks. The boat was positioned at distance so as not to disturb the birds and by waiting we were rewarded with the birds coming close on several occasions. A pleasure to watch and memorable time was had photographing these small grebes even though the light seemed to temporarily diminish while we were there. 

After staying there for a quite a while, the grebe family were left, and we finished off the morning session as it had started with further and very close encounters with Dalmatian Pelicans on a medium sized lake.

It had been an excellent start to the day with two new species at close range in front of the camera surrounded by the joys of the pulsating biological abundance of the Delta. As we moored up back at the hotel I was already wondering what avian treasures the evening session, our last on the Delta, would bring. You might have already guessed, given the number of photos above, that will need to wait now until be  my next blog post :). 

Roaming in Romania - Day 3: Silence is Grey

Having returned to our hotel at Mila 23 after a frenetic first morning on the Delta, it was time for a bit of a relax with a light lunch, downloading and backing-up images and a siesta to catch up on some missing sleep. As I drew the curtains for the afternoon nap, I noticed a gathering mass of grey clouds in the distance. When I woke at 3pm to get ready for the next photography session, that would take us through the late afternoon and evening, I opened the curtains and a mass of clouds had filled the sky in a low grey blanket. The atmosphere beneath was very still, heavy and slightly oppressive.

We set off in the boat and soon again cut off the wide main channel into a narrow twisting one. However, as we travelled along it very quickly became obvious that a different mood had settled across the Delta. It was as if the change in the weather had tripped a large 'off switch' causing all the birds and wildlife to become inactive and quiet. Even the constant chorus from the frogs had fallen silent. It was quite eerie as we slowly chugged along through the silent weed choke channels that seemed devoid of bird life. You get times like this back in UK, when one day will be very quiet for birds even though they are very active on the days preceding and following.

Despite the apparent lack of activity it was inevitable that we would eventually happen upon the ubiquitous Squacco Heron. This bird put on a good show as it went into stalking mode to catch a frog. The bird became almost cat like as it got lower and lower as it approached the unsuspecting amphibian.

After photographing the bird for a while we carried on our journey with the only bird we came across being a solitary Green Sandpiper in the grey gloom

Not surprisingly the next bird we happened across was another another Squacco heron this one being busily engaged with tackling a large water beetle larvae.

I am not sure if it was the lack of action, the apparent 'weight' of the sky pressing down from above or the fact that we never seemed to quite be in the optimal position to photograph the bird but I was starting to find this session slightly frustrating. I suspect this had mainly to do with the fact of normally being more in control of the position where I am photographing a bird from to ensure a good background and pose. Here I had to make do with where the boat had stopped and I could often see a better photography angle if it had just come to rest in a slightly different position. However, you have to always try and make the best of what is in front of you and the camera.

I think when you travel abroad you often go with expectations that it will be continual action with the camera but this is rarely the case. Those who remember my trip to Hungary last year might recall how we sat in a hide with just a single coot bobbing around in front of us for 7 hours. On this occasion those two Squacco Heron had so far saved a very quiet session.

We sailed into a larger channel and tied up along side a vertical soil bank close to a Kingfisher burrow, although despite waiting there for a while there was no evidence of any birds. Not even a passing electric blue flash to raise the hopes that a bird might appear. As we sat there waiting and hoping, a hatch of large cream Mayflies started. It has many years since I have seen this as thousands of these large flies emerge from the water in unison and dance across the surface for their brief few hours life to mate and then expire. This event certainly woke some of the fish up that were greedily sucking in those that had become trapped in the surface film.

We headed off downstream escorted by a swarms of mayflies and where the channel rejoined the main one a few birds were taking advantage of nature's bounty. A merlin, a roller a few common terns were busily snapping up the easy meals but the light was to poor and the sky unattractive shade of grey to make it worthwile to attempt any flight photos. In fact I only took a couple of a Caspian Gull (which is very similar to a Herring Gull except some subtle differences) and a Common Tern that had temporarily alighted on a branch in some debris that had accumulated mid-channel.

We headed off in the boat once more and turned up another channel which after a while opened out in to an enormous reed fringed lake whose surface was dotted with patches of yellow and white lilies. We had a brief encounter with a Night Heron and a solitary White Pelican and as the little light there left was further diminished at the end of the day we could see there were quite a large number of Squacco and Night Herons around the different patches of lilies.

It looked like a place that might be worth visiting the following evening when hopefully the light would be improved. A lone pelican in the rapidly descending darkness also proved to be our first sighting of the much rarer Dalmatian Pelican.

Overall the first day on the Delta had been one of two halves with a wonderful start but a slightly disappointing and frustrating end. However, this silence in the grey would all be forgotten the next day as the Delta sprung to life once more and really showed us what an amazing destination this is for the bird photographer. Of course that will be the subject of my next post...