Secret Valley Herons

A few weeks ago, I received an email with a couple of photographs attached  taken on a compact camera of a heron nest. This  had been sent to a photographer I know who lives down south, who knowing it was in my area, then forwarded it on to me. The nest was supposed to be one of around ten at a location close to home, which I have driven past many times, and never knew a heronry was there. My good friend lives just round the corner from the herons and he did not know they were there either. So before I get any further I would like to send a big thanks to Ben for sharing the information with me.

The heronry is on the edge of a new housing estate located in a narrow, shallow heavily wooded valley. Where birds have nested in the tops of trees growing from the valley base, by standing on the valley ridge effectively puts you at the interesting perspective of being level with the nests. Given the dense tree growth along the side of the valley there is only one small gap which is clear of vegetation to allow you to photography the birds. When I say small I mean its a 2ft clear hole through the branches which, with some careful camera positioning allows you to photograph three different nests. Each of the nests was occupied one with 4 well grown young, another with 3 and the third with an adult bird which was presumably sitting on eggs.

This is the first time I have photographed a herons nest and it reminded me a little of a scene from Jurassic Park especially with the 'primeval' sounds of birds from adjacent nests as adults came back and forth with sticks to build up their nest or fish to feed their rapidly growing young. I did three sessions in total before the spring tree growth obscured by small window through the trees. It proved to be a waiting game as the action only really starts in earnest when the adult returns to the nest with the next fish meal which seemed to occur every 60 to 90 minutes. In the intervening time, the chicks would spend their time sleeping, preening, moving sticks around and stretching their wings and building their wing muscles with some flapping exercise.

Here is a short video to show what I mean:
Herons Nest from Richard Steel on Vimeo.

On the video you can hear the sounds of birds on other nests nearby. It must be quite a noisy place at times for the local residents but from the few I spoke to out walking their dogs it appears they have a great fondness for the herons. One cold morning whilst waiting for an adult to return I was even offered a cup of tea by the owner of the house over the road from where I was stood.

It soon became obvious that the nest I was concentrating my attention on the most, (the one with three chicks) that the adults had found an easy food source as they were bring back large goldfish and golden orfe to feed the young. No doubt someones back garden pond was being steadily emptied of fish. When wildlife is offered an easy food source you cant blame it for exploiting it. Optimal foraging in action with maximum energy gain from minimum energy expenditure.

The main challenges with photographing the birds was trying to get all the birds facing in a good direction, one session I arrived to find a thick mist in the valley and also with the cold weather on the morning when I managed to eventually get some sun a heat haze rapidly developed.

Below is a further selection of images from the three short  but enjoyable morning sessions at the Secret Valley with the herons.

It was wonderful to get an insight into their lives that you don't normally see and good to watch a flourishing population of birds so close to home. I am sure I will return once more next year to observe, photograph and learn some more.

Rothiemurchus Ospreys - Day 2 and a Bit

This is the second and final part describing my trip to Scotland earlier in the summer to photograph the Ospreys at Rothiemurchus. Before I get on to those magnificent birds of prey, I will spend a couple of moments to show a few images of other birds that appeared in front of and around the hide. These birds provided a good distraction while waiting during the occasionally prolonged quiet periods between Osprey dives. As with many types of wildlife photography involves periods of quiet tranquillity interspersed with moments of intense action by both wildlife and photographer.

A Grey heron was present on and off throughout the two days. During the whole time it was present over the two days, I never saw it catch any fish although to be fair it did only made a couple of half hearted fishing attempts.

The big bird gracefully coming in to land

Standing around preening in some typical Scottish summer weather.

The other bird to grab my attention was a hyperactive Common Sandpiper which spent a good deal of time in front of the hide and at times was too close to focus on. It was very good to see this small wader up so close for a change and with the benefit of the sunken hide putting the bird at eye level. However, it proved quite tricky to get photographs due to the length of the grass but after quite a bit of effort I managed to get a few images I was happy with.

Time to move on to the Ospreys. The second day saw another early forced departure from bed with it still being dark outside. A quick look out of the hotel window unfortunately showed the previous evenings forecast to be correct with a leaden blanket of grey above. Light was going to be limited.

For this morning session we opted to chose the second of the two new hides at the far end of the pool. We had about three dives in total that morning  from an un-ringed bird, one of which again very close to the hide. Not the most productive of mornings particularly with a challenging lack of light to play with but still a memorable session in its own right to watch this specialist predator once again in action.

After returning to the hotel around mid-morning for breakfast and a by now much needed sleep we returned to the hides in late afternoon for the final evening session. However, the evening followed a very similar pattern to the previous one, with the rogue 'Red 8T' bird patrolling above and keeping all the other Ospreys away from the pool.

The next day saw Andy's workshop starting and I was due to have breakfast and then start the long journey southward. However, there was still a hide available which allowed myself, Rob and Dave a final morning session.. A spectacular morning of action it turned out to be with around 17 dives during the session. The wind was not in the ideal direction for the hide we were in but it still provided a good variety of photo numerous opportunities. Included amongst the plunging Ospreys was the un-ringed bird together with  'Blue DF' and of course the notorious 'Red 8T'.

A selection of images from this final busy session can be found below.

At first glance it looks like this may be a miss and the fish may of had a lucky escape but somewhere at the back there will be a talon firmly locked on.

 An osprey dive is not without a lot of flying spray.

We even managed to get some welcome sunlight.

 Some sunlight shining through those broad powerful wings








Full stretch with and without fish

The restrictions on visibility and speed of the dive prevented actually capturing ospreys at the point of hitting the water. I just managed to catch this one which will give you an impression of the power of an osprey dive.

 Water quickly falls off the bird once they have made it back into the air leaving a trail of spray in their wake.

So there you have it. Two and bit days with the wonderful ospreys that visit Rothiemurchus, spent with some great company and with the bonus of some rare Scottish sunlight. You cannot ask for much more than that and I am left with memories of my mini adventure in Scotland that will stay with me for a very long time to come.

Hungary for Birds - Day 4: Big Bird Bonanza

I woke in the middle of the night to a familiar sound from the UK, that of heavy rainfall outside. Its looked like the forecast for the fourth day of being less than favourable weather was going to be correct. I drift back into sleep for what seemed like a moment before the alarm clock burst in to life. A couple of coffees later and we were waiting in a puddled filled car park under grey skies to be collected for the day's photography in what was known as the 'Egret Hide'.

A short drive later and we came off the main road and bumped our way along a dirt track across the grassland plains. A small tree line in the distance marked our destination and as we drew near a number of large birds took flight and glide off to land several fields away. In the middle of the grassland was a small muddy pool approximately 60 metres long by 25 metres wide with two hides set at one end. One of the hides was only used for winter Crane photography and we took up our position in the other.

Each of the hides in Hungary has its own specific set of rules to prevent disturbance to the birds. The rule for this hide was that you couldn't leave it until our driver returned in the evening. He pointed to a bottle and bucket in the corner and we were told to use as the call of nature demanded.

I am going to split this day across two blog posts otherwise it will be a post with a huge number of images from what proved to be another very productive day in Hungary. For this first post I will concentrate on three of the day's species Grey Herons, Great White Egret and Spoonbill. The others I will save for my next post.

The pool in front of us had been emptied of birds by our arrival, so while we waited for their return Gerhard decided to have a snooze to catch up on some sleep. The repeated early mornings were starting to sap our energy levels. It was not long before the first bird swooped in in the shape of a Grey Heron, then another appeared and another until there were seven birds poised in motionless stances around the pool.

A large black shape glided across the surrounding plains and came in to land like a stalling barn door, the first Black Stork had arrived. Over the next 5 minutes this was joined by a further 17 young non-breeding Black Storks ranging in colour from young to adult plumage together with 5 White Storks, A Great White Egret and a Spoonbill. The small pond was now very crowded with these large fish-eating birds looking for breakfast and they all went on an early morning fishing spree. This was not a good place to be a fish and Crucian carp of between 15 to 30 cms in length were being pulled out all over the small lake.

It was interesting to compare the different fishing techniques of the birds. The storks walked purposely up and down stabbing the water to the left and right until they made contact with a fish. The herons stood motionless waiting for a movement in the water at which to lunge their attack. The spoonbill waded up and down the lake scything its long bill backwards and forwards through the water until it made contact with its scaly snack. The Great White Egret just followed the Spoonbill around and chased it until it dropped the fish it had just caught. As you can imagine given this high density of large birds the inevitable squabbles broke out between birds whenever a fish was caught. Hopefully you now have a picture in your mind of the scene so I better post some photos starting off with a familiar bird from home, the Grey Heron.

We had brief heavy showers through the day.

Another carp bites the dust. I have not seen a heron stab a fish like this before but when you have three Black Storks in pursuit any method of carrying the fish away to safely eat will do.

It was good to finally get up close to a Great White Egret. I have seen these birds on a couple of occasions in the UK, and they have successfully bred here  the first time this year in Somerset. Hopefully a sign of greater numbers being around in the future. I have also seen these birds in Mallorca, however on both occasions they have always been a little distant for my liking. On this occasion they were often too close being right in front of the hide, so that all you could fit in frame was a head.

Preening those long breeding feathers during a brief down pour.

They are elegant looking birds in flight.

Spoonbills are another bird I have seen in the UK but only at a distance that is too far away to photograph. Again I had an encounter in Mallorca with a young bird which provided my first photographs of this species. I am not sure what it is about Spoonbill but I must admit I find them very appealing birds. The Spoonbill that visited the Hungarian hide was in full breeding colours with a yellow tipped bill, red and and yellow throat patch and apricot coloured shoulder band. There could have been three Spoonbills but this bird made sure no others used the pond by chasing them away every time they tried to land.

Again this bird came incredibly close, unaware of the photographers concealed behind the one-way glass of the hide. It was great to see that amazing ridged paddle bill in close-up.

Despite the weather it was turning in to another special day in Hungary. For me the real star birds of the day were the Black Storks, a species I have only previously admired in zoos, and which will be the main focus of my next post.