Markus Varesvuo - Hungarian Puszta 06

Last morning found me greeting the sunshine in a Roller hide at 4.30. Thanks to Marc Guyt for nice company!

I had placed an order for a snake shot. The Roller would catch a snake, bring it to the roof of the hide and beat it to death before taking it to the female perching on a branch in front of the hide. We waited and waited – got quite good material of the Rollers just sitting, flying, eating – and finally, just as we were deciding to give up, the male arrived with a lovely tasty snake, landed on the roof and yes! started to beat it against the roof. Can you imagine my exasperation when the female suddenly took off, flew up to the telephone wire a good bit from the hide and the male flew over to her with the snake. Way out of the reach of my camera! A very stooped photographer eventually emerged from the hide and shuffled back to base.

But I had a nice session taking flight shots of Bee-eaters, which lifted the spirits again. And then it was time to head off to the hotel, pack up and leave.

Friday 23 May 2008

My last full day was spent in a drinking place hide, the same where I had been flooded the previous time. This day was calm, exasperatingly calm! With hardly any birds. Seven hours with a couple of measly shots of Blue Tits and the rest of the time mostly admiring the great light which would have been really nice for fantastic action shots… Saw the Sparrow Hawk again a couple of times, and eventually also a Goshawk who came down to perch on the side of the pond for about 1 sec. So no joy in shooting them, and they kept all the other birds away too.

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