The first outing in the Eagle hide

The Eagle hide was on the menu this day. That meant we had to be ready at 5:00 in the morning when Zoltán came to pick us up. I am an early bird but sometimes you wonder about what the heck you are doing.

Still we were ready and in a high spirit when Zoltán arrived. The trip went past a local bakery before we headed towards the National Park where Zoltán has one of his Eagle hides. He actually had two when the season started but one got flooded and it’s not useable anymore. We went past Zoltán father house to pick him up as the car couldn´t be left out in the park and had to be driven back to Túrkeve.

It had rained a little during the night and due to the wet conditions we also had to do a 15 minutes’ walk out onto the plain in total darkness to get to the Eagle hide. That made you wake up for sure but I really liked it as you could hear the sound of coming morning.

When we got to the hide I understood that we weren´t that far from the Rook colony that Zoltán spoke about during the summer. So could I hope for Rook´s today?

We prepared our gear as Zoltán cleaned the windows and put out 20kg of fresh meat for the birds. They surely wouldn´t stay hungry this day.

At one point Zoltán asked Arne to help him clean the windows as the light was coming faster than expected. Arne wanted to be helpful and took a short route which meant he ended up one the wet ground. Not the funniest thing to do when you are going to stay in a temporary hide out on the plain with just a small heater to keep you warm. Still he managed to get thru the day without complaining and once the heater got started he used it to dry his wet clothes.

So what happened during the 9 hours we spent in the hide?

We saw many interesting thing as the Buzzards’ and Crows’ interacted. We saw 20kg meat being devoured, a Red Fox passing by but also both White-tailed and Imperial Eagle. Sadly none of the Eagles came down in front of the hide as they seemed to have food on the fields nearby. We also witnessed the Fox being chased by an Imperial Eagle when it came close to what I expect to have been something eatable. There were many things to see and take photos of but we didn´t manage to get any good ones of the Eagles. They are here but the temperatures are to warm, we had 10 degrees today, and that mean they don´t get down onto the site as often. But now that we are here and we are going to give it another try that is for sure.

When I look at the photos here I find two that I like more than the others. The others are also good but these two speaks more to me.

The first is the photo of the Hooded Crow that is shaking the feathers. When I saw this I knew I had to try and capture it. I wasn´t sure what it could bring but I really like how it turned out with the head and the legs sharp while rest of the body is fuzzy. A really good first photo I must say.

I also like the Red Fox photo. This isn´t technically perfect as I had to try and find focus manually. I don´t feel that I nailed it but there is something else in the photo as the Fox is investigating what is happening in front of the Eagle hide. I like how the Fox blend into the habitat and that you just see the head. You don´t always need to get the complete animal in the frame to make it a good picture.

Hopefully you can enjoy the other pictures as well, even the White-tailed Eagle photo that I included just for the sake of it.