Mikepércs: Great White Egrets or The Bogy of Tadpoles

I spent the whole morning at the pond today. I was in the hide very early struggling with the lighter and couldn't make it work. So I was unable to lit the lampion which I use against the moisture on the window in the hide. And didn't take the matches with me.
Suddenly I could hear the rustle of wings then a great white egret was standing in front of the hide. Well that's my luck, I thought. Fortunately the egret stayed there for long. Thanks to the breeze the bottom of the glass began to dry, so after a short time I could try with some shots. The first pictures however were a bit "humid":

Great White Egret

Great White Egret

Then the glass started to clear up:

Great White Egret

The egret spent the time preening itself ...:

Great White Egret

Great White Egret

Great White Egret

Great White Egret

Great White Egret

... then walked on:

Great White Egret

Meanwhile two avocets arrived but they were far a bit and didn't stay long.
Then another egret came which was preening itself too for several minutes:

Great White Egret

After preening it showed it's beautiful feathers then walked on to find something to eat:

Great White Egret

Meanwhile other egrets arrived which moved around the hide, coming very close somtimes giving me the opportunity to make some portraits:

Great White Egret

Great White Egret

Great White Egret

Meantime 3 mallards appeared, which must have been good friends as wherever they went they kept together. This is one of them:

Mallard (male)

One of the egrets meanwhile was scratching long:

Great White Egret

Mallard (male)

The mallards were seeking their food digging their heads into the water:

Mallard (male)

The morning bath:

Mallard (male)

It's still tingling ...:

Great White Egret

The egrets meantime would come and go, sometimes there were four of them nearby.

Great White Egret

Mallard (male)

Great White Egret

Great White Egret

Then the tadpoles seemed to wake up because the egrets were catching them more and more frequently:

Great White Egret

Arrival ...:

Great White Egret

... then hunting:

Great White Egret

Great White Egret

Sometimes the mallards made some exercise:

Mallard (male)

Then an interesting scene took place: One of the egrets walked onto a dried area of the pond bed. The lapwing which was staying on that area disliked this move very much, took off at once and started a serious attack against the egret which defended itself with open beaks:

Great White Egret vs. Lapwing

In the end the egret gave up and left that area:

Great White Egret

Great White Egret

Mallard (male)

The good friends:

Mallard (male)

And the combative lapwing:

Lapwing

After a while the egret started its way to the forbidden area again:

Great White Egret

The lapwing started another attack and the egret had to defend again:

Great White Egret

After a few attacking flights the lapwing was able to make the egret leave.
Soon the birds started to disappear from the pond so I left home with these nice experiences.

Mikepércs: Poppies

Today morning I didn't have too much spare time, so I visited only the meadow near the village hunting for wild flowers. I could get mainly poppies:

Poppy

Poppy

Poppy

A white variant:

Poppy

Poppy

Poppy

Tufted Vetch

Mikepércs: Hare In The Glade

Today morning I wanted to watch the behavior of the orioles on a glade near the forest. I could hope that a pheasant, a hare or a roe deer would appear as well. I sat down near a tree covered myself with a camouflage net and waited. The orioles would fly usually in the higher regions, but sometimes they settled on a lower branch and a female once landed on the ground to gather blades of grass for it's artistic nest I suppose.

A pheasant cock did appear later, then a hare came towards me, stopping sometimes:

European Hare

But it must have got a scent as it suddenly turned back and ran away.

Mikepércs: Heartsease

Today morning I visited the pond again, hoping that some reed songbirds or even a whinchat would appear in front of me, but I had no success. Before leaving I looked around and found some heartseases: 

Heartsease

Mikepércs: Black Winged Stilts, Sandpipers

Today I visited the pond again. The wood sandpipers appeared first, one of them had a rest a bit farther from the hide:

Wood Sandpiper

Then two black winged stilts came, they were looking for food in the shallow water:

Black-winged Stilt

Black-winged Stilt

Black-winged Stilt

Black-winged Stilt

Black-winged Stilt

Black-winged Stilt

Black-winged Stilt

Black-winged Stilt

Black-winged Stilt

Black-winged Stilt

Black-winged Stilt

The stilts didn't stay long and the wood sandpipers reappeared from time to time:

Wood Sandpiper

Wood Sandpiper

Wood Sandpiper

Then came a redshank. It looked nice among the little flowers:

Redshank

Redshank

Redshank

Redshank

Redshank

Wood Sandpiper

Wood Sandpiper

 

Wood Sandpiper

The marsh harriers were flying continously above me, still gathering material for their nest. I hoped that the yellow wagtails would be moving nearby, but I could only see once one of them. I saw a purple heron hunting in the reed, unfortunately it was a bit far. Never mind, next time I will be closer, as I decided to move my hide a bit further, where there was more clear water.

Mikepércs: First Time In The New Hide

It was today that I first tried out my new hide at the pond. It's much more comfortable than the old one was, but it's only a little bit more spacious. I would have liked best ducks to take photos of. There were garganeys, ferruginous ducks and mallards but they didn't come close. The first bird which dared to come closer was this coot:

Coot

Coot

Sometimes a few whiskered terns appeared in the air, but they were hunting a little farther:

Whiskered Tern

Then appeared a few ruffs and wood sandpipers which were looking for food in the shallow water in front of the hide:

Ruff

Wood Sandpiper

Wood Sandpiper

Wood Sandpiper

I had a good view on a part of the dried pondbed as well. This also attracted such birds as lapwings and yellow wagtails, which were hunting there for insects:

Yellow Wagtail (male)

Yellow Wagtail (male)

Yellow Wagtail (male)

Meanwhile the marsh harriers were flying to-and-fro in the air, as far as I could see, they were gathering materials for their nest, as they landed always in the same place in the reed, bringing there twings and other vegetable matters. Moreover, one of them once landed even near my hide to take some twigs. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take a good shot of it becouse of the vegetation.

Mikepércs: Whinchats Again

Today I went for the whinchats again at the same place as I was last weekend. After 5:30 I was already in the hide and waited. The harriers didn't come close enough and I didn't expect to take a decent shot of the bluethroat as it always settles on the very top branches of the bushes and sings there. On both occasions I came here, the whinchats appeared around 7 o'clock, and today was no exeption. Today however I saw only one female, but suddenly it appeared on the twig that I had placed especially for her:

Whinchat

Moreover it spent some time there, so I was able to take many photos of it:

Whinchat

Whinchat

Whinchat

Whinchat

Then it disappeared as suddenly as it came. I didn't see it anymore.
On the elder bushes at the side of the reed periodically appeared various reed songbirds: marsh warblers, sedge warblers and great reed warblers. Once this marsh warbler settled on a branch near the hide, so I could record it too:

Marsh Warbler