Mikepércs: At The Pond

Spring has come. The birds have dropped away recently at the feeder, so I wasn't able to photograph them. However I could take my hide to the pond, where I discovered teals, shovelers, garganeys and mallards previously. Unfortunately the coots and the little grebes disappeared, surely for the low water level. But until there is any water in the pond, it must be a nice place.

It's not completely dark when I get to the pond this morning, so my arrival make all the birds fly off. Then after I get into the hide the birds start to come back. First the redshanks land to a distant bank, but they soon come closer and get within shooting distance:

Redshank

The night has been really cold, even a thin layer of ice has developed on the shallow water, which broke when a redshank landed on it, so the bird had to make some jumps not to sink:

Redshank

Green sandpipers get closer too:

Green Sandpiper

Then little ringed plovers appear, this brown-white little bird looks nice among the fresh green plants:

Little Ringed Plover

Meanwhile the ducks are coming as well, first a couple of mallards arrive on a distant bank then a flock of garganeys are flying above the pond and after a short time they land on the water farther on. But they are closing! That's great! They seem to be coming to the shore:

Garganeys

Some of them are spending a few minutes on the bank:

Garganey (male)

But they don't stay long, soon they are back on water:

Garganey (male)

As the sunshine is getting stronger, the light conditions are getting worse, so I finish my photography for today.

Mikepércs: Young Water Rail

Last time I moved my hide to the opposite side of the pondbed as I wanted to try and catch the moorhens. I wondered if they would get in front of me today. 

The wagtails appeared first this morning, young white and yellow wagtails were very active near the hide. The wood sandpipers walked in front of me too:

Wood Sandpiper

Then came a surprise: a young water rail came out of the thick reed-mace. But an other one was lurking there too. They always stayed close to the thick vegetation and they left it at most a few meters sometimes. One of them came too close to the hide so I couldn't take shots of it. Moreover, I noticed that they like to get under my hide as there is a space of about 10 cm-s between the bottom of  it and the ground. Obviously it must have searched for insects there. Tappings on the bottom of the hide indicated that it hunted there successfully.

Young Water Rail

Meanwhile a wood sandpiper was searching for food nearby as well:

Wood Sandpiper

Wood Sandpiper

The white and the yellow wagtails were picking up insects continously:

Yellow Wagtail

Later a lapwing came in for a short time:

Lapwing

A little ringed plover spent a lot of time searching for food around the hide:

Little Ringed Plover

Little Ringed Plover

Little Ringed Plover

Sometimes it got very close to me:

Little Ringed Plover

This sandpiper found a big mouthful for itself:

Wood Sandpiper

Wood Sandpiper

Then the young moorhens came out of the reed-mace but I didn't manage to take good shots of them.
A ruff appeared too:

Ruff

The water rail got in front of me again:

Young Water Rail

Young Water Rail

Finally this green sandpiper was the last bird I photographed today:

Green Sandpiper

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.