Mikepércs: The Stilt Hatchling Again

Today I was running for the stilt hatchlings again. It was still dark when I got to the ponds but the adult stilts had discovered me before I reached the hide. They began to cry right away. I got into the hide and soon I heard the peeping sound of the hatchlings then I discovered one of them next to a blade of reed. When gulls appeared and the stilt parents began to cry indignantly the hatchling crouched down to the ground. As soon as the danger had ceased the hatchling stood up again. After a while it started its way towards the opposite shore accompanied by one of its brothers and the parents:

Young Black-winged Stilt

After that young wagtails and wood sandpipers landed near the hide to feed:

Wood Sandpiper

Then the common sandpipers appeared as well. Sometimes they broke into a run to catch an insect:

Common Sandpiper

Sandpiper-like hunting:

Common Sandpiper

Wood Sandpiper

Mikepércs: The Stilt Hatchlings

I hoped that some kind of herons would visit today my hide. It was not the case. When I arrived at the hide it was getting light. This time instead of the avocets the stilts were crying indignantly around me. When I got into the hide I thought they would calm down within a short time, but they didn’t. They kept on moving around my hide: 

Black-winged Stilt

I got a feeling that the hatchlings were nearby. Soon I did notice 2 tiny figures in the distance but I was not sure they were the stilts and not some smaller shorebirds. After about an hour of waiting my attention was caught by 3 little toddling stilts near my hide, accompanied by their parents. They were moving towards the center of the pond bed. They soon returned to my greatest pleasure and were moving in front of my hide:

Young Black-winged Stilt

Meanwhile a young great reed warbler settled on a dried branch :

Young Great Reed Warbler

After a short time the stilt hatchlings returned and moved in front of the hide for my greatest pleasure:

Young Black-winged Stilts

Young Black-winged Stilt

Young Black-winged Stilt

The great reed warbler appeared again:

Young Great Reed Warbler

The stilt hatchlings sometimes fluttered their tiny wings and sometimes jumping simultaneously, as if they had wanted to fly. They were very amusing:

Young Black-winged Stilt

"I can almost fly! Do you see?"

Young Black-winged Stilt

Sometimes young white wagtails and yellow wagtails landed and were picking insects nearby:

Yellow Wagtail

The parents cried frequently but it seemed that they didn’t make too much efforts to keep the youngs off from my hide:

Black-winged Stilt

Young Black-winged Stilt

Similarly to the avocets, the stilt parents acted aggressively against foreign birds (especially magpies and gulls) when these appeared in the airspace. In such a case the stilts took off at once and attacked them collectively until the intruders were dismissed. They defended the area so strongly that even the sandpipers couldn’t land there.

Black-winged Stilt

Small bird standing on long legs in the mud:

Young Black-winged Stilt

After a time one of the stilts came so close that I could only use my wide lens. I didn’t care of course as I have used only tele lens for birds so far:

Black-winged Stilt

A little ringed plover appeared as well:

Little Ringed Plover

Once I noticed the flossy creatures sitting next to my hide, one of them even dozing:

Young Black-winged Stilt

Young Black-winged Stilt

When cowering to the ground they are totally melting into surroundings:

Young Black-winged Stilt

One of the parents while preening:

Black-winged Stilt

Black-winged Stilt

Meanwhile the heat increased too much, especially in the hide, so I decided to leave.

Mikepércs: Flowers and Insects

Being calm weather I went out to the meadow to take some macro shots:

Marmalade hoverfly

Ruddy Darter

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