Romania and the Last Frontier - Day 7 p.m: A Quiet Afternoon

After the manic morning session with the jackals and eagles, I was feeling in the need for a relatively relaxed afternoon. Another wave of exhaustion had come over me after a very long week of sleep deprivation. I had actually found this trip to Romania much less exhausting than the previous year and  more relaxed. On the trip last year, the lack of sleep obviously had an impact on my immune system as I contracted septic tonsillitis as soon I returned to the UK, an illness I have not had since childhood. I think the spluttering person sat next to me on the plane home may have been the source.  I think this trip had been more chilled,  partly due to it being a repeat visit to the Danube Delta, but also I have tried to take a much more laid back approach to my photography this year. I have grown weary of the degree of ridiculous competitiveness, and the unpleasant undercurrent of deceit that it floats on,  which sadly seems to have developed in wildlife photography in recent years. So I made a conscious decision at the start of the year, that I would set out to immerse myself even more with the wildlife and be removed from the pressure of pleasing anyone except myself. It is for this reason I have entered no photography competitions this year and concentrated on spending more time in the company of a few species close to home. It has been refreshing.

Over a pasta lunch we discussed the plans for the afternoon. Rene having seen some of my Bearded Tit photos from the previous day fancied trying to improve on those he had taken when we first arrived. I offered to take him out to try and help.

We picked up on of the electric buggies and headed out in mid afternoon but the light was still too harsh for trying for the acrobatic tits among the reed stems so we decided we would visit one of the hides to pass some time. The one we selected was a small reed clad hide set on the corner of an L-shaped pond which had some posts set in the water in front of it which frequently seemed to be used by terns.

I was hoping to get some photos of terns landing or hovering over the posts but it proved to be very quiet and the slight breeze was in the wrong direction. We took photographs of the couple of terns, a Whiskered and a Common, that came in and perched up on the posts for a while.

While we were sat that a long thin snake swam across the surface of the channel in front of us before crawling up out on the far bank. After a bit of Google searching we identified it as a Diced Water Snake. Interestingly at home I struggle to get a mobile signal yet everywhere we went in the Danube Delta I seemed to have full mobile and 3G signal!

After a while the sun seemed to be softening down and we decided it was time to go and look for the Bearded Tits. Once again I seemed to find myself photographing Bearded Tits but was more than happy to try and help Rene get some photos and maybe I would get the shot of a male bird I had visioned in my head since arriving. So off we headed down the western track and tried the three places that had been the most productive the previous day. After a bit of effort we managed locate and get some photographs of the birds. Again it was the juveniles that provided most of the camera action.

Right at the end of the session I finally managed to get the photograph I was hoping for of a male bird on a solitary stem at the edge of the reeds.

Rene wanted to head back to the the hotel which brought an end to a relaxed session. As we arrived back at the 'ranch', we bumped into Zoli. He asked if we wanted to see a Penduline Tit nest he had found that afternoon. Rene declined but I was curious to see this odd structure and so found myself heading back along the tracks to a spot a short-distance from the hotel.

The nest was low in a willow tree at the side of pool and proved very awkward to get an angle on for a clear shot of it. The nest is a truly remarkable structure that looks a bit like a small rugby ball made of cotton wool with a small entrance funnel at the top. After watching it for a short while it began to shake a little and the bandit masked face of the tiny Penduline tit appeared in the entrance.

My first opportunity to see one of these birds up close and I was surprised how small it was as I had always envisaged them to be larger. The light was all but gone to try and get any photographs of the bird out of the nest but it gave me some ideas for something to possibly try for the following and final day of the trip which I intend to recount in one large blog post.

Romania and the Last Frontier - Day 4: Sleepy until Sundown

I always think of my trips overseas as a 'holiday' but they are never really very relaxing. In fact they are a bit more like a survival course as they are always fairly punishing in terms of schedule and sleep deprivation. The early starts, combined with the time difference, and long days quickly take their toll with cumulative fatigue. I find it easier by trying to keep organised and sticking to a fairly strict regime whilst away.

On the morning of the 4th day the effects of lack of sleep were starting to take their toll. There was a subdued atmosphere on the boat that morning. Some were more subdued than others.

The boated gently chugged through the back channels of the soft pre-dawn light and we entered into the small western 'Grebe Lake' once more. We had barely entered the lake when the first bird, a Squacco heron,  was in front of us bathed in early light. The mosquitoes seemed to be out in force that morning.

We decided to try and get some tern flight photos, as everyone was keen to try and get some Black Tern shots, but it was never really going to happen as the gentle breeze was  completely in the wrong direction seeing the birds generally flying into the light. If the conditions are wrong it doesn't matter how hard you try, it will always be a struggle to get images. I managed to get my first couple of photographs of the Black Terns but could see it would have been so different if the wind had been blowing the other way.

In the end it soon became obvious it was fairly hopeless continuing, as the camera shutters progressively fell more silent, it was time for the boat of tired photographers to move on. A Hooded Crow flew lazily overhead on the look out for an easy food opportunity

We entered into a back channel and encountered a pair of Red-necked Grebe which we stayed with for a short while before continuing our journey.

A little further on a Squacco Heron preening amongst the emergent aquatic plants.

Onwards we traveled before entering the large lake where we had finished the previous evening and the boat came to rest amongst a large lily bed which groups of Whiskered Tern were hunting insects over. The same frustrating problem though of the wind being in the wrong direction persisted to thwart our efforts with few useful photos being produced.

While we were sat there I decided to make a short video which I thought you may find of interest. The video is not about what you will see but will be hearing so make sure you have some volume on before hitting play. Now you may think this wetland paradise is an oasis of tranquility? It is far from it and what you are hearing in the video, except for the occasional camera shutter, is the constant background chorus of thousands of frogs. The volume of these amphibians increases quite considerably at night.


Tranquility in the Danube Delta from Richard Steel on Vimeo.

The morning outing was over and it was time head back to our hotel. This has been our least productive session on the trip, partly due to making a wrong choice with the conditions and also due to a general lethargy amongst the photographers that morning. Hopefully a dose of carp broth for lunch and an extended siesta would set us back on track and raring to go for our final evening boat session on the Delta.

I had a good sleep and felt much more back on the planet when we assembled on the hotel jetty around 3 p.m. I put this down more to the curative properties of the afternoon nap than the fish and vegetable soup.
The boat slipped away from  the jetty and headed off downstream which meant we would be travelling to one of the large eastern lakes, and probably some pelicans which seemed to be showing a preference for those areas. I must admit I do like photographing pelicans as they always look great either stood on an accumulation of vegetation, swimming around or in flight. I was hoping we could get some more flight photographs during this session.

We encountered a solitary Dalmatian Pelican stood on the same area were we had encountered pelicans previously.

After a few photographs the bird took off and we moved across the lake to a small group of White Pelicans, which provided us with some good flight photographs. Photographing pelicans in flight is relatively straightforward as they are such large birds that they require a long run up to get airborne which allows plenty of time for the photographers to get locked on to the with the cameras.

The boat manouvered back around and we made our way slowly towards two more Dalmatian Pelicans. En-route we came across a male Ferruginous Duck in a patch of lilies, a new species for me. An attractive bird in its rusty plumage.

The boat eased up close towards the two Dalmatians Pelicans which also provided us with some good flight opportunities.

A bonus Purple Heron passed the boat with long slow wing beats  allowing opportunity for a couple of welcome bonus photographs.

On our travels we came across a Little Egret stood on a log mid-channel with the strong currents swirling round it. A fairly tough exposure with the sun still bright and the background relatively dark.

We were heading to the same destination as the previous evening and paused as we entered once more into the large lake for a loafing Pygmy Cormorant. If ever there was a bird species which reminds me of birds reptilian ancestors then this would be it.

The same cast of birds was set out before us as the previous evening, with numbers of herons and ibis picking their way through the large floating mass of weed . The sun was starting to soften down  now and we started with a Glossy Ibis. This bird was not looking as a good as the one from the previous evening with its guano splattered feathers where it had been sat on the lower branches of the roosting tree. An avian analogy of human lives really, with the lower your position on the ladder the more you tended to get dumped on!

A Grey Heron stopped by briefly which was a good reminder of how small both Squacco and Night Herons actually are.

Of course with the light becoming better by the minute the cameras turned back to both of these smaller herons until there was no glow to play with using sensible camera settings.

Another very enjoyable session had come to an end and as we headed back to the hotel, we were treated to a beautiful sunset as the grand ending to our final evening session.

We had one last boat photography session left the following morning, before we headed off to our new destination, deeper into the Delta, to a place known as the 'Last Frontier'. Would a overnight complete change in wind direction finally allow us to photograph the Black Terns the next morning?  Well  you will have to wait for the next instalment to find out :)

Roaming in Romania - Day 4: The Bounty of the Delta

Sleep deprivation was now setting in as I struggled out of bed to the  4:45am alarm call on the 4th day. A customary glance across the balcony to check the weather, as I dressed, saw a group of white pelicans pushing themselves upstream on slow powerful wing beats above the incessant chorus of frogs. The untimely breakfast of omelette's went down no easier than the previous day even with a large mug of freshly brewed coffee.

We set sail and this time head off a short distance downstream before turning off into a medium sized reed bordered channel. The quiet, heavy atmosphere of the previous afternoon had departed as the skies had cleared and the Delta had sprung fully into life once more. The biological productivity of this vast wetland truly has to be witnessed to be believed. The first bird that stalled our progress was a tiny Little Bittern I had spotted but by the time the boat had back tracked it had skulked back into the security of the reeds. After about 30 minutes travelling along an ever narrowing channel, it suddenly opened out into a vast lake bathed in soft pre-sunrise light. 

Ironically the first bird species we came across was the last one we had caught a brief look at the previous evening in the gloom of dusk, the Dalmatian Pelican. This species has been in rapid decline and is now fairly scarce within the Delta. All the pelicans seemed surprisingly shy despite their huge size and this one soon took flight with the approaching boat to relocate to a different part of the lake. 

This was only to be the start of several encounters with these birds over the course of the morning. As the boat was manoeuvred towards two more Dalmatian Pelicans, we paused briefly to take some photographs of a Cormorant that was drying out its waterlogged feathers in the early sun. 

I also managed a photograph of drake Pochard, its head glowing in the early light, as we slowly chugged through thick weed beds and lilies.

We eventually got into position for pelicans from what seemed to be an increasing frequency of positioning boat instructions from the four photographers. We took some portrait photographs of the two birds in the margins while the boat drifted ever closer to the birds until it entered the invisible 'circle of fear'.

All birds have this surrounding fear  zone which once breached will cause them to put more distance between themselves and people either by walking, swimming or flying away. The two pelicans settled for the latter allowing some full frame flight photographs of these magnificent birds.

Next stop on our circuit around the lake was an extensive lily bed  which was hosting a large colony of Whiskered Terns.

We took some more photographs to add to the collection of images taken the previous morning. The birds were busy building what appeared to be precarious nests, comprising a jumble of various water plant,s on top of the lilies. Occasional a Hooded Crow would swoop in a grab an unguarded egg whilst being pursued by a noisy group of terns.

Some of the terns had obviously learnt that it was quicker to build your own nest by plundering the materials from one of your neighbours. After a prolonged stay with the terns we headed across to an channel on the far side of a lake where a Pygmy Cormorant was drying off. I always think there is something very primitive in the appearance of these birds and it is quite easily to visualise the reptilian ancestry. 

We left the lake through a narrow channel and sailed through the weed-chocked waterway for around 20 minutes before entering a small lake. Zoltan, our guide, had brought us here to photograph Red-necked Grebe, a new species for the camera and one I was hoping to encounter during the trip.  A pair were present with the bonus of two chicks. The boat was positioned at distance so as not to disturb the birds and by waiting we were rewarded with the birds coming close on several occasions. A pleasure to watch and memorable time was had photographing these small grebes even though the light seemed to temporarily diminish while we were there. 

After staying there for a quite a while, the grebe family were left, and we finished off the morning session as it had started with further and very close encounters with Dalmatian Pelicans on a medium sized lake.

It had been an excellent start to the day with two new species at close range in front of the camera surrounded by the joys of the pulsating biological abundance of the Delta. As we moored up back at the hotel I was already wondering what avian treasures the evening session, our last on the Delta, would bring. You might have already guessed, given the number of photos above, that will need to wait now until be  my next blog post :).