Moments From Nature's Secrets

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Mikepércs: Mass Of Birds

A week ago I moved my hide to another place at the pond because the old place was not really visited by birds. On this place however the bird activity has been quite good recently.
It was getting light when I got out this morning, there were many birds on the pond: gulls, ducks, black winged stilts and shore birds. After getting into the hide the black-headed gulls reappeared soon. There wasn't much light for a while, so I couldn't take decent photos. But the light conditions improved slowly, and with the ruffs' arrival the number of successful images increased:

Ruff (male)

Ruff (male)

Even a magpie landed on a reef:

Magpie

A landing black-headed gull:

Black-headed Gull

The spotted redshanks appeared as well:

Spotted Redshank

With the arrival of the spotted redshanks and black-winged stilts the morning sunbeams appeared as well lighting the birds beautifully:

Spotted Redshank

Black-winged Stilt


Spotted Redshank

Black-winged Stilt

Black-winged Stilt

Black-winged Stilt

Spotted Redshank

Spotted Redshank

Meanwhile a whiskered tern landed and began preening itself:

Whiskered Tern

Whiskered Tern

Teals were very active:

Teal (male)

Teal (male)

Teal (male)

Spotted Redshank

Then a group of black-winged stilts gave a performance: they cried in chorus while waving their wings, ...:

Black-winged Stilt

Black-winged Stilt

Black-winged Stilt

Black-winged Stilt

... sometimes hurtled each other, then sat down peacefully to repeat this procedure again after a while.

The coots turned up as well:

Coot

Teal (male)

The neighbourhood of the hide must have been a good place for getting food as two young stilts circled the hide many times feeding there:

Young Black-winged Stilt

Some birds spent a lot of time with preening and scratching themselves:

Ruff (male)

Black-winged Stilt

A green sandpiper turned up in front of me, I haven't met this bird for ages:

Green Sandpiper

Spotted Redshank

Great attention must be paid on the feathers:

Ruff (male)

Ruff (male)

Ruff (male)

Ruff (male)

Ruff (male)

Black-headed Gull

Black-headed Gull

Coot

Suddenly my attention was caught by a ferruginous duck family coming towards me from reed at the opposite side of the pond, ...:

Ferruginous Ducks

Ferruginous Ducks

Ferruginous Ducks

... then having a rest on a reef:

Ferruginous Ducks

They didn't stay long there, the mum leaded the youngs back towards the safe reed.

Then the avocets appeared ...:

Avocet

... and a young black-headed gull landed on the pond sipping some water:

Black-headed Gull

Black-headed Gull

One of the avocets gave a good performance as well: It tried to dismiss all the birds from the neighbourhood where its youngs were. When a bird got a bit closer to the youngs the parent set about it at once and the bird had been dismissed:

Avocet

A great white egret appeared too and walked just in front of my hide:

Great White Egret

This spotted redshank had been chased by the avocet as well:

Spotted Redshank

Preening:

Garganey (female)

Spotted Redshank

Spotted Redshank

Spotted Redshank

Ruff (male)

When the avocet wasn't chasing it was feeding:

Avocet

Avocet

Avocet

I noticed a black-tailed godwit near the opposite shore but it didn't come closer.

A few lapwings turned up too:

Lapwing

I caught sight of a small sized gull while landing and starting preening. After examining it better I realised that it was a young little gull:

Little Gull

Little Gull

Little Gull

Meanwhile the teals would come and go:

Teal (male)

Teal (male)

Garganeys turned up too:

Garganey (female)

Then I noticed a spotted redshank fighting with a tadpole in it's beak:

Spotted Redshank

The redshank was twirling it, sopped it into the water, was walking with it, made many attempts but still didn't succeed:

Spotted Redshank

And suddenly the tadpole disappeared from its beak, but after all I didn't find out wether it managed to swallow it or not.

Then my attention was caught by the teals again:

Teal (male)

Teal (male)

Teal (male)

Teal (male)

It's a long time since I last saw the green shank:

Greenshank

Teal (male)

Meanwhile the avocet parent was chasing the birds tirelessly in behalf of it's youngs I suppose, which were having a rest peacefully on a reef:

Young avocets

A couple of dragonfly appeared in front of me as well, I couldn't skip them:


A black-headed gull was busy adjusting its leg for quite a long time:

Black-headed Gull

Black-headed Gull

The female teals got closer too:

Teal (female)

The two siblings:

Young avocets

Avocet in attack:

Avocet

Avocet

Avocet

Not only the young stilts were circling my hide but their parents as well, if they were really their parents. When they passed in front of the hide noticing their reflection in the window, they tried to bite it splattering this way the window. My attempts of making some noise and knocking the hide proved to be useless to making them leave the place.

The young avocet got tired so it sat down:

Young avocet

There were so many birds all morning that many times they were covering each other while I wanted to take shots of them. On the other hand the number of the birds exceeded all my expectations.

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