The Common Raven (Corvus corax) is a large bird whose habitat spans the whole northern hemisphere of Eurasia and North America. One of its natural advantages is that it can feed on anything. The other advantage is its high intelligence which was proved by its independent ability to solve problems. Unfortunately, this property led in the Middle Ages to the accusation that it cooperates with evil forces whereas the same phenomenon was venerated by the North American indigenous peoples.
The difference between the somewhat smaller Carrion Crow (Corvus corone) and the Common Raven ist the latter’s larger bill and a lozenge-shaped tail. Another difference is the voice of the raven which is deeper and also more varied.
In Switzerland its preferred habitat, large forests bordering on wide open areas, has shrunk over the last decades so that the raven was forced to retreat to the mountains. You find it in large numbers in the Alps as well as in the higher regions of the Jura mountains. That’s where I managed to shoot my first portraits of this fascinating bird:
It is a gregarious animal and is very often found in groups and large flocks
An excellent flyer
is not afraid of attacking gleefully larger birds of prey like the White-tailed Sea Eagle:
Taking pictures of the Common Raven is not very easy. It takes a long telephoto lens, preferably a hide, a lot of patience and some food (carrion) to attract the birds. Only then you can record its natural beauty and elegance and observe its behaviour clearly showing the animal’s intelligence and social competence.
All pictures from my homepage http://hhsiegrist.zenfolio.com
The Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea) is a very common bird living close to freshwater lakes and rivers in Europe. Its impressive size and attractive plumage make it a well worth subject for nature photographers. The species is found all year round and nests in spring high up in tall trees. It is a close relative of the American Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias).
One of my favourite sites is a small island at the port of Auvernier about 30 metres from the shore of Lake Neuchâtel containing a small forest of poplar trees where Grey Herons are abundant:
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/2410954.jpg
With a lot of patience you will get the right position in the right light to find a statue-like bird posing for you in a tree
As a fisherman’s shed is quite close to the island they also wait for the catch to be prepared so that they can get at the scraps and fly away
In the reeds you will find them stalking for fish and other aquatic animals
Some flying pictures are also within reach if you are ready to shoot and your autofocus is quick enough
Grey herons are relatively easy to photograph if you can find a place where they flock and are not too shy in the presence of humans. Occasionally they visit zoos to help themselves from the food of other animals, too. As they are big enough, a medium telephoto lens is sufficient for frame filling pictures.
These and more pictures at http://hhsiegrist.zenfolio.com/grey_heron
Dear All
The old theme was not entirely satisfactory in that it did not show clearly enough some parts of my blog information. In my opinion the new theme is much better as the text type font appears more readable and the pictures are not crushed by an extremely coloured background.
Tell me what you think about it.
Cheers!
Hans
Birds in flight are a special discipline in bird photography. It is a trial and error thing where the error rate is usually very high. Fortunately, modern cameras make things a bit easier with their highly efficient continuous autofocus modes but the rate of keepers is still lower than 10 percent.
Last Friday I was invited by birdwatching friends to join them on one of their birdwatching towers in the Fanel nature reserve on the south shore of Lake Neuchâtel (http://www.birdlife.ch/f/saugefanel.php). The distance for photographing sitting birds was too long (not a problem for the birdwatchers, though, with their big scopes) but the tower provided an excellent opportunity for making pictures of flying birds.
Yellow-legged Gulls (Larus michahellis) are just about everywhere and some of them showed off their elegance in the air:
There were also tremendous numbers of Red Crested Pochards (Netta rufina) occasionally taking off to explore a different part of the lake:
Another bird which occurs in high numbers is the Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) whose sworn enemies are the local fishermen as they consume large quantities of fish especially in the breeding season. Colonies of these bird can be found on the artificial islands in the lake from which they go on their fishing expeditions:
They also fly away in search of nesting material
and come back with some
Other flying birds found were Greylag Geese (Anser anser):
and, of course, the ubiquitous Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea)
Multipoint continuous autofocus is extremely helpful for photographing moving objects against the sky but gets easily confused when the flying birds are in front of a structured background. With some luck you can still get nice compositions like these two cormorants:
All in all, it turned out to be an excellent opportunity to share a day out with nice people and to practice, once more, one’s skills in this difficult discipline of wildlife photography.
As usual, all pictures at http://hhsiegrist.zenfolio.com
I know, the Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) is not a rare bird in Europe and there are millions of photographs of them, from the casual snapshot on a Sunday walk to the elaborate picture trying to show the animal in its exclusive beauty. It is identified by its orange to red bill and the characteristic knob above the bill and not to be confused with the two other swan species in (northern) Europe, the Whooper Swan (Cygnus cygnus) and Bewick’s Swan (Cygnus bewickii) who both have yellow bills and are much noisier than the mute swan.
Making good pictures of mute swans take time and patience. One of the rules in wildlife photography says that it is important to be at eye level with your subject. This is particularly beneficial with a bird that everybody seems to know as perspective can make the difference between an average snapshot and a real picture doing justice to the subject.
In the above photo the swan shows a threatening display called “busking” by which it defends its territory. Most times the animal is not very aggressive.
The following picture shows the ”busking” pose displayed by two swans, male and female. In this instance it is part of their courting ritual. Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” ballet comes to mind:
And, finally, there is the impression of flying mute swans whose flight is accompanied by a throbbing sound of their wings which can be heard from far away even before you see them:
By the way, did you know that all unmarked mute swans in England are the property of the reigning monarch, i.e. the Queen? Of course this does not apply to Scotland and Ireland.
This blog takes off much faster than I thought and I suppose I will have to keep up with expectations. Thank you for visiting, bookmarking and subscribing.
The European or Alpine Ibex (Capra ibex ibex) is a kind of wild goat that lives all over the alpine regions in Switzerland. Oddly enough, there is also one colony in the Jura mountains where I live. It was introduced in the sixties by the local game warden who thought the animals may attract tourists. That turned out to be true but today such an endeavour would be banned as illegal as the species is not indigenous to the Jura range. Two years ago the colony was topped up with three new animals from the Alps after a lot of haggling between the local tourism board and the federal environmental agency.
Anyway, for us wildlife photographers this colony is totally welcome as it is not too far away and we can spend whole days in this nature reserve called the “Creux-du-Van”, a natural rock arena, with excellent chances of finding our subjects:
http://www.neuchateltourisme.ch/en/leisure-activities/hiking/creux-du-van.908.html
They can be found single on a ledge with a vertical drop of 200 metres:
or in family groups in the sun:
The kids venture out alone:
and the adult animals enjoy a mouthful of new grass in spring:
Old males are not shy at all:
and you are well advised not to try to shoo them away but respectfully walk around them if you can.
More pictures at http://hhsiegrist.zenfolio.com/european_ibex
The Eurasian Bittern or Great Bittern (Botaurus stellaris) is an elusive migratory bird that comes to Switzerland only during its migration in the cold winter months. It lives on lakeshores where it hunts for fish and molluscs and hides in the reeds aided by its plumage.
Lake Neuchâtel is my home ground for bird photography. Some of my photographic colleagues mentioned that they had managed to see the birds on the frozen surface of one of the lake’s lagoons and taken pictures. This encouraged me to try to find this bird on 30th December 2010, a very cold day indeed with temperatures around -10°C.
On arrival in the bird hide I found this at a distance of 6 metres:
Within two hours three birds were walking around the frozen water surface looking for openings in the ice where they could fish for food. One caught a small shellfish:
Another one skimmed the water surface:
…or had to plunge deeper:
A few weeks later the ice had melted and the birds kept their distance well camouflaged:
More pictures to be found at http://hhsiegrist.zenfolio.com/p1069150344
OK, since this is a new blog, there will be some information about some older photographic excursions. In 2009 one of my most inspiring journeys led me and my wife Janine to Finland to see and photograph brown bears.
One of the places to see bears in Finland is the Martinselkonen Wilds Centre (Martinsekosen Eräkeskus in Finnish) at Pirttivaara in the vicinity of Suomussalmi on the eastern border of Finland and very close to Russia: http://www.martinselkosenerakeskus.com/avaussivu_english.htm. The family business offers excellent bear viewing facilities including hides assuring the necessary security measures against nosy bears. Although not cheap by any measure, the place and its services can be recommended.
Accidents with European Brown Bears are relatively rare but one must not forget that this species (Ursus arctos) is exactly the same as the American Grizzly Bear. It’s just that the latter are bigger than their European cousins. The farther you go east on the Eurasian continent, the bigger the bears become and the Kamchatka variety in eastern Russia stands up to its American relatives.
By spending several night in the hides (14-hour stints with entry at 1700 hours or 5 pm and exit at 0700 hours or 7 am) one can be pratically sure to get many occasions for bear pictures in the swamp, at the lake or in the forest.
Early morning male bear
A large male
Frightened bear cubs
Mother with cubs
More pictures at http://hhsiegrist.zenfolio.com/wild_bears
The European Bison (Bison bonasus) is a close relative of the American Bison (or buffalo) from which it got separated when some of their common ancestor emigrated to the American continent during one of the ice ages.
Wild roaming European Bison were extinct after the First World War and later reintroduced in Poland and Belarus. The Polish animals are protected and kept in the two wildlife reserves of Bialowieza and Puszcza Borecka (“Borker Heide” in German). It is the latter that I visited in March 2011 to get a view and, hopefully, some usable pictures of these impressive animals.
The approach was only possible with the help of the local wildlife ranger who was kind enough to take me in his 4WD vehicle so that I came close enough to make my photos. See also http://hhsiegrist.zenfolio.com/p728897681.
A careful look at the photographer
He’s not that dangerous
Mother and child
and a friendly male
Just when I was taking the above picture the ranger reminded me that it would be wise to return behind the vehicle just to be on the safe side. The close proximity of these animals was a wonderful experience.
The White-tailed Sea Eagle (Heliaetus albicilla) is a large bird of prey inhabiting large zones of northern Europe. It is not to be confused with the American Bald Eagle (Heliaetus leucocephalus) which occurs in the United States and Canada.
The White-tailed Sea Eagle can be found in areas containing large water surfaces like lakes and rivers as well as on the seashores. Although it prefers fresh prey when available, it also feeds on carrion when the former is difficult to obtain. This habit can be an advantage for the wildlife photographer as the bird can be baited using animal carcasses during the winter months when the water surfaces are frozen.
So, you just have to get yourself isolated against the freezing cold of a northern European Winter and spend days on end in a hide where you get in before sunrise and stay there until the end of the afternoon. That’s what I did this winter in Poland’s Masuria, a wonderful landscape of forests, fields, lakes and rivers. After an uneventful stay in September 2010 I decided to come back in March 2011 to try my chances again. A total of 40 hours at temperatures between -6°C and +2°C resulted in a series of pictures I was absolutely happy with. All of them can be seen at http://hhsiegrist.zenfolio.com/p663053436.
Flying adult Sea Eagle
Landing juvenile Sea Eagle
Juvenile chased by Common Ravens (Corvus corax)
Adult and juvenile Sea Eagles taking off
All pictures taken from hides in the Iwanowo region in Polish Masuria
