Rodna Mountains: Rhododendrons

About a week ago I read that in the Rodna mountains the rhododendrons had started to bloom and after the 15th of June they would be in full bloom. So, I decided to have a look at it. This time I had a companion and we planned to spend two nights at the Lala Mic lake at an altitude of 1900 m where tenting is permitted. We had to stop the car around 7 kilometers from the spot and it had darkened by the time we got there. Being weekend there were several other tents near the lake.

I wanted to wake up before sunrise to capture some good shots. In the first morning the sky was quite overcast but after some time the sun rays appeared:

There were really lots of rhododendrons around the lake. In the background You can see the Ineu peak with snowspots:

Besides the rhododendrons there were many other colourful flowers too:

Next morning the sky was absolutely clear:

It was really worth coming up for this scenery, however the surroundings of the lower Lala Mare lake is also beautiful, so I decided to photograph there too next time.

Mikepércs: Backlight

 

The sunlight is strong this morning. I'm trying to catch some interesting moments of the quick moving chiffchaff at the pool:

Chiffchaff

Chiffchaff

Chiffchaff

Chiffchaff

Blackcaps, tits and chaffinches come to have a bath as well, later a song thrush appears too:

Song Thrush

Mikepércs: Wood-Pigeon

There are nice, soft lights today. I'm hoping in making some nice shots. Birds are coming:

Blackcap (male)

Song Thrush

A wood-pigeon lands behind the pool then walks to the water and starts drinking:

Wood-pigeon

Wood-pigeon

Wood-pigeon

The female blackcap arrives as well:

Blackcap (female)

Blackcap (female)

Blackcap (female)

In the end a blackbirds arrives with a worm in its beak:

Blackbird (male)

Mikepércs: Chiffchaff

It's a sunny morning. I'm struggling with the strong light. The birds are coming to have a bath one after the other: spotted flycatcher, jay, ...:

Jay

... starlings, ...:

Starling

... blackcaps, then a chiffchaff has a long bath, shaking off the water from itself on the landing twig nearby after that, then returns to the pool:

Chiffchaff

Chiffchaff

Chiffchaff

It's repeating this procedure again.

Fortunately there are soft lights as well:

Great Tit

Blackcap

Mikepércs: Yellowhammer

 Today I managed to increase the number of photographed bird species at this pool. Not with this chaffinch of course:

Chaffinch (female)

The nearby nesting starlings have come only once, today however they wanted some water:

Starling

Starling

The songs of yellowhammers can be heard often, but they stayed away from the pool till now. Today they came as well. First the female, ...:

Yellowhammer (female)

Yellowhammer (female)

... then the male landed to drink, unfortunately not at the place where I would have liked to, so there's no photo of him.

After the yellowhammers a song thrush arrived with a worm in its beak. It washed the worm ...:

Song Thrush

Song Thrush

... and only swallowed it after:

Song Thrush

Mikepércs: Golden Oriole

 

It's a sunny morning. A female blackcap arrives for a morning bath at the pool, ...:

Blackcap (female)

... the water droplets are sparkling:

Blackcap (female)

A spotted flycatcher appears nearby ...:

Spotted Flycatcher

... to land at the pool. At the same time arrives the blue tit. Its small in size but big in bravery. It bundles off the bigger flycatcher:

Spotted Flycatcher and Blue Tit

As soon as the blue tit finishes the bath the flycatcher returns:

Spotted Flycatcher

Spotted Flycatcher

Spotted Flycatcher

Spotted Flycatcher

Later a male chaffinch lands singing happily:

Chaffinch (male)

Chaffinch (male)

Chaffinch (male)

The flute-like song of the golden orioles can be heard frequently but one can see them more seldom. This time however they are flying to-and-fro nearby, one of them even lands on a branch opposite to me.Unfortunately he's a bit behind the leaves and after a short time he flies away ... but only to return on the same branch and this time he's absolutely visible:

Golden Oriole (male)