Mikepércs: The Young Storks

I’ve been planning for a time to make some shots of the young white storks. I haven’t made any observations yet, so I didn’t know what to expect. I found a nest, where I was able to watch them from a relatively higher viewpoint without any interfering electrical cables. There were 4 youngs in this nest and they were almost the size of their parents'.

Waking up at 5, the sky was clear, let’s start! When I got there I could see only one of the youngs: 

Young White Stork

After a while one of the parents arrived:

White Stork

The greedy youngs grabbed the food almost from its throat:

White Storks

When it had finished belching the food the adult bird flew off. After the breakfast the youngs preened themselves, fluttered their wings.
After a while one of the parents reappeared, but it seemed not to bring anything this time:

White Stork

One of the youngs was jumping for food, but didn’t get anything and the adult bird flew away.
One of the youngs here is fluttering its wings:

Young White Storks

Young White Storks

Young White Storks

On my way home I noticed 2 collared doves on a wooden pillar, I thought it would worth some shots. Here's one of them:

Collared Dove

Mikepércs: Great Mullein instead of Stonechat

I planned to take photos of stonechats alighted on a great mullein today in the morning as I often saw them settled on the top of these plants. I took the hide out to the meadow at dawn, set it up, got inside and wated and waited. Yet they didn't intend to settle on these mulleins:

Great mullein

Great mullein

Mikepércs: Young avocets

My hide has been standing on a new place for a week. I moved there in hope of making photos of the spoonbills and the young avocets which I noticed 2 weeks ago on that place. When I got there early in the morning the adult avocets appeared at once and cried indignantly around me. About 10 minutes later, when I finished my arrangements around the hide and got inside they moved away a bit and settled down. I discovered the youngs at the opposite shore. They’ve grown so much in a single week that they resembled better to their parents than to themselves when they were a week younger and were covered by brown feathers. After some time they began to move to and fro between the opposite shore and the place where my hide was standing. They were approaching but didn’t come within shooting distance. Meanwhile herons, egrets and gulls were flying across the pond. When gulls appeared above the avocet parents defending their children took off like fighters on an inimical plane attack and were chasing and attacking them until the gulls left the air space. I don’t think these were dangerous for the youngs as their size was almost of their parents’. Later the youngs came close enough so I was able to make some better shots: 

Young avocets

Having a bath:

Young avocet

Getting closer:

Young avocet

Nevertheless the parents didn’t allow them to get too close to the hide.

Mikepércs: Bee-eaters again

I planned for today a bee-eater photography late in the afternoon. They used intensely the branch placed in front of my hide settling often on it with some kind of an insect in their beak. This bird has caught a miller:

Bee-eater

Bee-eater

Then a couple settled on the branch and began to get closer and closer to each other:

Bee-eater

It's obvious what's coming:

Bee-eater

Bee-eater

Bee-eater

The gift comes after mating this time:

Bee-eater

The yellowish lights of the sunset are dominant here:

Bee-eater