TomKal foto

At last the first pictures initializing a gallery of the golden eagle on my website have been taken.  Unfortunately the most interesting ones among them are the photos of a young specimen. Adult birds could be observed only as they were flying above our heads. But finally I managed to see wild golden eagles. Without a doubt they are not going to be the last pictures of representatives of this species on my website…
Last minute news 11/2016
The premiere of a new version of my website opens golden eagle’s gallery, and actually changes that have occurred in this gallery. The display was founded not so long ago, just a few months ago, and was initiated by several documentary photos taken in Mongolia. And here we have such a surprise. Here in Poland I managed to take much better and more interesting shots of a golden eagle, actually two golden eagles, which appeared against the lens.  Everybody there was very excited, because it is an amazing, strong, brave and rare bird. Although it probably was passing occasionally in a place where I photographed it, immediately changed the existing order that ruled in the clearing before its arrival. Adult white-tailed eagles, even though they were bigger, gave way without a struggle. And buzzards were disappearing without a trace at the sight of the golden eagle. Sometimes there was bad light, at times the distance was too big, or ravens crossed a frame, anyway, 3 stars go to the gallery as good one, because it is the golden eagle - the object of dreams probably all nature photographers.

That is the right place here to explain some changes in the structure of the new version of the site. So far on my website there were galleries a bit disordered in terms of quantity and quality. Step by step my ambitions are more focused on quality than quantity of photos. At first  my desire was to observe and photograph  10% of the world population of birds, this is 1,050 species. To achieve this therefore I need to take photos of  120 species more. So there is the need for better search tool, clear database and better presentation of pictures. I already wrote about it in January in the information of spoon-billed sandpiper. Work on the construction of a new website took over a year, but we managed to achieve all goals. The new site is equipped with an advanced search engine. You can skip the galleries of the documentary content (one star under the name of the species). You can for example search for only good or very good galleries (3 and 4 stars under the name of species), of the specific geographical area and with the soundtrack of the species. Besides search tool there are changes also in format of the presented images and the way they are displayed - presented images will have a bigger size. Unfortunately, more than 20,000 photos previously posted on my website is the amount, which cannot be reedited in one day to prepare for the new version of the site. And some of them are prepared badly. Galleries of documentary or sufficient quality will not be changed. The refreshed images, even though they are not appearing in the news, will replace the old photos within time. This will include three and four-star galleries i.e. good and very good (in my opinion). Sometimes 4 stars go to the gallery which maybe do not contain best pictures but presents a very rare species, or photos were taken in interesting circumstances, or has an interesting soundtrack, in a word, is interesting from the ornithological point of view. I deliberately did not attach 5-star category to any of my galleries. I assume it is a category associated with something the best, perfect. I just secretly hope that the best is yet ahead...
Last minute news 09/2017
Undoubtedly the bearded vulture was a reason for going to Spain. But since it turned out that the golden eagle could be photographed there as well, perhaps the bravest bird on earth that can hunt bigger and dangerous animals such as wolves and foxes, it was difficult not to take the opportunity. This time it was not a quick and accidental shooting. The golden eagle showed how fast and courageous it could be. The bird flew down to a bait, but did it so quickly that it could be said to come down from the sky. It fed and flew as fast as it appeared. There was still a large amount of the bait and therefore it was probably watching somewhere nearby to be on guard of its meal if necessary. Only when it noticed that vultures were interested in the bait, it appeared as suddenly as before, and despite the fact that there were already many griffon vultures in the area, it chased them away and none of them dared come close to the food, waiting nearby or circling over our lookouts. Its second arrival to secure the meal ended with the recording of the eagle's voice. The bird sat by the bait, spread its wings, ruffled its feathers and made a kind of squeak that did not fit the hunter, to be honest. Anyway, you are welcomed to listen to. This time I managed to photograph adults, and  the possibility of watching these birds, which took place several times, made me feel  excited. The gallery has been rebuilt and again goes to the news.
Last minute news – 06/2018 - Spain
I have added a few photos, which I last took in Spain, to the golden eagle gallery. Some photos have been removed and some new – better and dynamic - were uploaded instead. The process of perfecting the gallery is not over…
Last minute news - 06/2019 Spain
This time it was not my photographic goal in Spain. But before the Spanish imperial eagles came before the hide, two raids of the golden eagle took place. Such encounters with this amazing bird have to be recorded in the information, and the photos of this bird in flight added to the gallery as well.