Alphabetical list

I guess the best picture of a Robin I took in a temperature of -10°C. I wished then, that he would cooperate when I spotted him in my garden. But, maybe because of that I will remember the freezing cold, which made the Robin, despite the fact I was not masked, wisely approach the seed lying only around 6-8 metres from me, allowing me to take such pictures. The situation was impeded by an Eurasian Wren, which came to the conclusion that the seed was lying on its territory and unsuccessfully tried to scare Tits and the Robin away.

Nowadays it is very rare in Poland. It is estimated that there are only couple of tens of pairs of nesting rollers in our country and to photograph them you need a special permit. So if you spot a roller you need to step back not to disturb it so it could successfully end its mating period. Presented pictures were made in Spain as a break from an exhausting bustards watching (when you are up from 5 a.m. until around midnight you can not go through the process again the next day).

Photos of  those cormorants were taken on the "bird island" - in the National Park of Scotland, when I was shooting puffins (see Puffin’s description). It is amazing what a big difference in behavior of those birds we can observe when comparing "accidental" opportunities of shooting in Poland to the “bird island” in Scotland. Wandering around breeding ponds I managed to shoot cormorants, but if the distance was reduced to a few tens of meters, the birds immediately took their wings off.

It was a beautiful May morning (2014). Not only was the weather beautiful, but also the birds were posing in front of the camera. Since they represented three distinct species, they started three new galleries on my website.  The Common Whitethroat, The Common Grasshopper Warbler and the European Stonechat. These three species inhabit the same area. Now and again, it was possible to see the Red-backed Shrike. It was a lot easier to take photos of The European Stonechat than record its voice. It was the other way round with the Common Grasshopper Warbler.

About difficulties in photographing this bird I wrote in the introductory text to my expedition to see the procellariiformes. It is really of a dainty physique, especially it appears to be like that against the endless ocean waters. Its weight  is about 25 grams so it is lighter than a sparrow (about 30 grams). The wingspan is about 35 cm, which  is a lot considering the small weight of the bird. Storm petrels, even when rearing offspring, spend all days on the open ocean feeding and return to nests/burrows at night to feed their young.

What is the most interesting in nature photography, is the fact that nothing is ever sure and nature can always surprise us. I was returning after an unsuccessful shooting session of  the common quail, it was raining, and suddenly a turtle dove jumped out almost from under my wheels. It sat down on a nearby dry tree and there it was waiting calmly for the downpour to stop. Unfortunately, the 600 millimeter lens with 2X converter did not help. The distance was too large.

Attempts to photograph European nightjar are time spent an hour before sunset and an hour before sunrise. In order not to waste time during the day, we were looking for other interesting species in the same forest, of course with a priority focused on birds. Omnipresent caciques, traditionally unavailable in the treetops. This time, the forest wood warblers and two representatives of reptiles came to the rescue - blindworm and a new species for me an European viper. Vipers can have very different colors.