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Sunil's Bird Photography

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Sandhill Cranes in the Winter

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I had the opportunity to visit some Sandhill Cranes at a roosting site on the Wisconsin River last month. This was one of the last possible opportunities to photograph them before they migrated south for the winter.

Winter means early sunset and the cranes didn’t arrive till the light was failing. Nevertheless, the vast numbers of cranes arriving together gave me an opportunity to try some long exposures. I particularly like how the cranes in flight look like wraiths in the air.

I also tried some artistic blurs with the cranes when they finally landed close by when it was almost completely dark out.

But blur or not, the sounds of these vast numbers made for a memorable night.

I did manage to get back to this site in a couple of weeks as the river was starting to freeze over. The light was still poor, but I spent some time with them in a virtual blizzard as the snow came down while they came in for the night.

Click below for a number of other images of these cranes in the snow.

Until next year cranes!

Many thanks to the ALDO LEOPOLD FOUNDATION for making these visits possible.

Zambia – South Luangwa National Park: Mfuwe

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I had the very cool opportunity to spend part of August this year in Zambia with my family. Naturally, I packed my gear along and there were excellent photography opportunities throughout. Since I photographed prolifically, I’m breaking this into three posts with one each to cover the Mfuwe and Nsefu sectors in South Luangwa National Park as well as the Lower Zambezi areas.

In the Mfuwe sector of South Luangwa, we stayed at the lovely FLATDOGS CAMP right outside the park gate. This sector of the park is known for its unusual abundance of large game including leopards. I naturally had some arrangements made for spending time with the local birdlife as well.

We reached the lodge in the afternoon and set right out for an evening game drive into the park. Here are some images from while it was still light out.

Yellow Baboon – Mother and child

Bird alert – one of the first large birds I saw and photographed was this Saddle-billed Stork. This huge and spectacularly plumaged wading bird was a great start for avian subjects.

There were of course lots of opportunities with the larger animals as well – here’s an abstract of some Plain’s Zebra to show how close we could get.

Crawshay’s Zebra – Abstract

And while I’d have the opportunity to see the Bateleur in all it’s adult glory later on, here’s a juvenile sighted the first evening.

Juvenile Bateleur

As the sun set we went to visit the site of a lion kill from the night before – where I saw my first vultures.

Sunset itself was spent on the banks of the gorgeous Luangwa river. Not bad for our first sunset in Zambia.

Sunset on the Luangwa River

But the fun doesn’t end at sunset. After dark, we keep going with a spotter to look for night life. We immediately saw our first predator.

Followed by ‘Ginger’ the male of the local pride.

Seeing the large game at night is quite the memorable experience. Ginger passed within feet of our safari truck!

Day Two morning began with a bang with this hyena walking across the road with a warthog head – probably from a large predator kill the previous night.

Immediately followed by this Red-billed Oxpecker who posed beautifully on this Impala.

Here are some cute photographs of Yellow Baboons being a family.

Naturally we spent some time on birds this day (and every other). This set includes our first hornbills and the resplendent Hadada Ibis.

Here are some other noteworthy non-avian images of the day.

During a break for lunch and rest in the hot midday African sun, we had some company at the pool.

The evening drive saw more birds and animals including the following.

At sunset we made a stop with some antelope. You’ll sense a theme here – I always try to get some animals in the foreground for sunset.

And like the previous day, we also found some animals after dark – including our first owls.

Day three started off with another lovely African sunrise.

Followed by some birds.

And our first good looks at a leopard in the daytime. It’s quite the experience to have one of these walk within feet of the family.

During a break we stopped by a little water hole with some action. I got some more opportunities with the Saddle-billed Stork.

We also saw a cooperative Pied Kingfisher near the river on our way out of the park. But the light was too harsh, so we decided to try again that evening. As luck would have it, we also saw a Malachite Kingfisher. These birds are small and fast!

On our way out of the lodge, we also ran into a few Ground Hornbills. These massive and prehistoric looking birds were very chill while we held up everyone behind us on the driveway.

Southern ground hornbill

For sunset we decided to visit the local elephant crossing. This was a great experience with the elephants lining up to drop down to water level so they can wade across. This is a centuries old spot for the elephants and I was able to capture some nice interactions.

As a bonus, we found some bee-eaters and other birds near the crossing.

And after dark – this happened. A pair of Pel’s Fishing Owls. A sweet find for my bird list.

That wrapped up a very enjoyable Day Three on a high note.

Here are some miscellaneous images from the morning of Day Four.

The highlight of this morning was this leopard we found with a kill in a tree. We must have spent at least an hour watching it.

Here are some photographs from the rest of the day and the afternoon.

At sunset, we raced to a spot where we could get some wildlife in front of the setting sun.

And finally our last night in this part of the park – we found some interesting things – including our first nightjar.

We spent one last morning here. The highlight was a Crowned Hornbill eating a huge and colorful locust. We also saw some Wild Dogs, but got much better looks later in the trip, so I’ll reserve the photos.

We’ll certainly miss the place, but now we move on to the next phase of our trip. Another four nights spent in the remote and wild Nsefu sector of South Luangwa National Park. Watch out for that post!

Birds of Hungary

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Hungary is home base to some of the folks that wrote the book on hide photography in Europe. I was able to spend a week trying various locations around Hortobágy National Park for some of the iconic European species that breed in the area.

European Bee-eater

We started off in a hide to photograph Hoopoe at a nesting site. Hoopoes are colourful birds found across Africa, Asia, and Europe, notable for their distinctive “crown” of feathers. This Corn Bunting also made itself known.

Some time in a tower hide in front of Red-footed Falcon nest boxes – meant a lot of action from several pairs of these gorgeous birds.  True to its name, the Red-footed Falcon has red feet! 

European Bee-eaters could be photographed from a hide set up near a farm. Spectacularly colorful and unmistakable long-billed insect-eater with a bright yellow throat, gemstone-blue belly, and flame-colored back – these birds are mesmerizing.

Water birds were a tougher subject from a sunk blind near a pond. They remained somewhat distant and no special behavioral shots were achieved here.

There are several woodland hides around to shoot passerines. Water is a precious commodity here and a lot of small birds made their presence known when offered water deep in the woods.

The shorebird hide was also one of the less productive ones. There had been a number of Ruff earlier in the season, but unfortunately they had all departed.

The Egret and Stork hide had just this one Grey Heron – but it did give some decent photographic opportunities.

Other birds and wildlife photographed across various hides around the park:

Before I left Budapest I did manage to spend a night shooting some iconic scenery!

In Search of Spruce Grouse

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Known as ‘Fool Hen’ – the Spruce Grouse relies on staying still to remain hidden. This makes it one of the tamest birds to approach, once you find one. And therein lies the problem – you have to know how and where to find one. I signed up on a field trip organized by the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin titled “In Search of Spruce Grouse” which offered the opportunity to find these birds in the coniferous bogs of Chequamegon National Forest in the northwoods of Wisconsin.

The trip was quite successful and we ended up finding five individuals including four displaying males which true to form, allowed very close approach and excellent photographic opportunities. Here are some of the images I made on this trip:

And some closeups of course:

NRF field trips offer special and unique opportunities to enjoy up-close experiences with Wisconsin’s natural resources in the company of expert trip leaders. The fees for these trips provide much needed funds for conservation and research, so please consider supporting them if you are in the area. Please check the link below.

NRF WISCONSIN FIELD TRIPS
 

Birding New Zealand

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I spent a couple of weeks on the South Island in New Zealand around Christmas. While this was officially a family vacation, I managed not to close my eyes when some of the awesome birdlife passed by. The number of species (and number of pages in the field guides) in New Zealand pales in comparison to the ABA area, but being an isolated island it is perfectly situated for a number of very unique endemic species. Like in most other places, human activity has led to steep declines in the populations and even extinction of many of these species – by some accounts up to 40%. With no or few natural mammalian predators, introduced species have been a primary reason for this situation.

While my entire trip was on the South Island, that didn’t stop me from knocking off a few birds during my transit at Auckland Airport on the North Island – particularly Common Chaffinch and Common Myna. My first couple of days were spent in the Christchurch region. The semi-urban area has some wonderful spots for shorebirding and I spent some time in the Avon-Heathcote Estuary. The highlight of the place is the over 1000 wintering (summering?) Bar-tailed Godwit which breed in places including Alaska and at 7000+ miles undertake one of the longest non-stop flights during migration of any bird species. Other species I picked up here include Pied Cormorant, Australasian Bittern, White-faced Heron, Swamp Harrier, Pied Stilt, South Island Oystercatcher, Variable Oystercatcher, Masked Lapwing, Red-billed Gull, Kelp Gull, Australasian Magpie, Welcome Swallow, European Goldfinch and House Sparrow.

Another area I tried near Christchurch was the Ashley River Estuary which was a bit to the north. I was attempting to find Wrybill and with some luck – Black Stilt, but unfortunately dipped on both species. I suppose I will have to make another trip! Birds of note here were Double-banded Plover and Sacred Kingfisher.

From this point I headed north to Kaikoura – which has a reputation for pelagic birding. When I got there, I was informed that the pelagic I had booked had failed to meet minimum numbers and would be cancelled. After consulting with some friends, I decided to pony up the NZD 250 for a solo trip – and it was worth every penny. The trip is short by most standards at 2-3 hrs but as soon as we left land behind and my guide/captain pointed out the first albatross I had ever seen, I knew it was going to be special. The first albatross was a Wandering Albatross and it had a wing span almost as wide as our boat! The boat went out to the continental shelf and as soon as we put out the chum, the birds came – Wandering Albatross, White-capped Albatross, Salvin’s Albatross, Southern and Northern Royal Albatross, Northern Giant Petrel, Cape Petrel, White-chinned Petrel, Westland Petrel, Flesh-footed Shearwater, Sooty Shearwater, Short-tailed Shearwater, Hutton’s Shearwater, and more. The birds were close enough for wide-angle lenses and I was actually clipped by a Giant Petrel. I was a little seasick by the end, but so totally worth it.

From Kaikoura we drove back south to Moeraki (no new birds, just some rocks in the water), stopping on the way in the small town of Cheviot. In a lagoon there I found Black Swan, Pacific Black Duck, Australian Shoveler, Grey Teal, New Zealand Scaup, Purple Swamphen and Eurasian Coot. No bird photos, but here are the Moeraki Boulders.

This was followed by a long drive to Dunedin on the Otago Peninsula. Another birding hotspot – I swear it was just a coincidence. On the peninsula, we spent a few days including a couple of solo trips to see penguins. The first night there included a drive to the Royal Albatross Center – strangely enough, not to see Albatross, but Little Penguin. My species list from a few other outings included Little Owl, Yellow-eyed Penguin, Bronze Shag, Royal Spoonbill, Yellowhammer and Spotted Shag.

The subsequent few days were spent in the Catlins chasing down some forest birds. The crown jewel of sites for forest birds however was off the south end of the South Island on the third island in New Zealand – Stewart Island. This included two trips to Ulva island which is a predator free island accessible by water taxi from Stewart Island. These trips included gems like Morepork, Yellowhead, Saddleback, Stewart Island Robin, Tomtit, Silvereye and Red/Yellow-fronted Parakeet.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that one of my most coveted birds was the South Island Brown Kiwi which I found on a midnight trip off Stewart Island. The photograph is horrible, taken at ISO-124000 and lit by flashlight, but deserves special treatment.

We wound up the trip with a few days in Fiordland – where I added the Fiordland Crested Penguin on a cruise to Doubtful Sound.

Birding on the Bering Sea

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The second half of my trip to Alaska this June was spent on the little rock called Saint Paul Island. A small (very small) Saab aircraft took us from Anchorage on a 3-4 hour flight (air travel like other things is flexible in non-urban Alaska) to this small island. There was some excitement as tsunami warnings were out while we were in the air due to an earthquake in the Aleutians. But everyone and their bags made it ok (again – a noteworthy event).

Saint Paul Island is the largest of the Pribilof Islands, a group of five Alaskan volcanic islands located in the Bering Sea between the United States and Russia. The city of St. Paul is the only residential area on the island. The two nearest islands to Saint Paul Island are Otter Island to the southwest, and Walrus Island to the east. St. Paul Island has a land area of 40 square miles. St. Paul Island currently has one school (K-12, 100 students), one post office, one bar, one small store, and one church (the Russian Orthodox Sts. Peter and Paul Church). The church is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. (Wikipedia)

St. Paul is revered as a mecca for Asian vagrants during migration, but the timing of this trip meant that I was aiming for local breeding species. The most colorful of which are the Puffins – Horned and Tufted. Most of the bird colonies on the island are on sheer cliffs populated by dozens to thousands of birds of various species – the Puffins are no different. The Horned Puffins outnumber the Tufted, but seem harder to see.

The other seabirds in quantity are the Auklets – Least, Crested and Parakeet. The Least Auklets are present by the thousands at certain spots in vast noisy colonies. The Crested Auklets in particular are visually striking with their forehead crests.

Also omnipresent are Thick-billed and Common Murres which often seem to outnumber all other birds on the cliffs. Since the extinction of the great auk in the mid-19th century, the murres are the largest living members of the Alcidae. They tend to create a lot of cackling noises at the nesting sites which combined with their numbers can make those areas quite noisy. They lay eggs directly on bare rock which can be an interesting sight.

Kittiwake deserve their own section (I think). I was as excited as you can imagine about the Red-legged Kittiwake and made a special trip out specifically to get some photos of the species. Black-legged were seen often and a few times actively feeding young. Red-legged were still on the eggs at the time.

Some of the other birds of note were the Northern Fulmar, Rock Sandpiper (Pribilof ssp) and Red-faced Cormorants. One of the other common birds that remained unphotographed was the Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch.

Some other unphotographed birds included Ancient Murrelet, Harlequin Duck, Surf Scoter, Mallard (a rarity), Bald Eagle (also a rarity), Short-tailed Shearwater, Pelagic Cormorant, Short-billed Dowitcher, Glaucous-winged Gull and Pacific Wren.

Of course, photos would be incomplete without some of the famous Northern Fur Seal and the adorable Arctic Fox.