This is the third trip report from the Bee-eater Bonanza 2015

The third part of the Bee-eater Bonanza has been spent at two different hides, the Hawfinch hide and the Hoopoe hide, and in a boat on Lake Tisza.

I am a little disappointed by my lack of photos of the Hawfinch from the Hawfinch hide. The case for me was that the Hawfinches always landed in front of the hide at the nearest end and that point was too close for the lens that I had brought with me. I could have put the 70-200mm on the Nikon D800 and I really don’t know why I didn’t do it this time. Still the Hawfinches where present even if I don’t have any pictures to show this time.

The evening was spent on Lake Tisza and this time the weather was fabulous. We had a really smooth boat trip with clear skies and many birds that did cooperate with us which was great to see.

The highlight for me is as always the Whiskered Tern colony, but it was also great to see how relaxed both the Squacco Heron and the Black-crowned Night Heron was when we approached them. Of course some took off, but the major share ended up on our memory cards.

Black Crowned Night Heron bee-eater bonanza — Black-crowned Night Heron 150618

We stayed at the Whiskered Tern colony for some time before we continued our boat trip on the lake. The time at the colony turned out to be productive even if it is hard work to get the pictures you really want. It was great to once again see the Black Tern, but like the last time it went away as soon as I had seen it.

The picture I show above is by far the best picture I have found from the Bee-eater Bonanza’s Lake Tisza session at this moment. I really like the golden light in this picture and that is the main reason why I think it is above the rest. I also like that you see the Night Herons funny hair-do.

The boat trip was successful and next morning I tried the Hoopoe hide for the first time. They have their second batch of young this year. I felt direcly that this hide was going to be hard at times.

It was easy to work with the portrait shots and really hard to get the bird coming or leaving the nest in a particular.

The main difference for me was that the Hoopoe only came back with worms, more or less. The rest of the insect that I have seen before seems to have vanished for.

Please enjoy the gallery.