Romania and the Last Frontier - Day 3 a.m : A Chorus of Thousands

The irritating relentless beeping of the alarm rose me from my slumber at 4:15 am (2:15 UK time). It was still dark outside, and even through closed windows the incessant chorus of thousands of frogs could be heard, to help remind me where I was and get over the temporary waking moments of disorientation. Some cold water was thrown from the tap in the general direction of face and I slipped into the pre-arranged pile of clothes, picked up the camera kit and was downstairs waiting for breakfast at 4:30am. Coffee and an omelette with a bit of ham and cheese on top slipped down with difficulty but the cold fish on the plate in the middle of the table were certainly not going to be entertained.

By 5 am, the hide boat with the four photographers on board was making its way slightly upstream before cutting right into a narrow channel. Ahead of us the feint creeping glimmer of pink orange light was increasing as the sun moved up towards the horizon. The morning session was going to be spent in what I call 'Grebe Lake' as we had spent a good deal of time there the previous year photographing the Black-necked variety. This was one of my favourite places from the visit last year. The lake is ringed by a perimeter of high reeds with various patches of floating aquatic plants across the placid waters. Being relatively small it conveys a certain feeling of 'intimacy' with the wildlife. A very special and idyllic place to be at first light although not a tranquil one as there is a  tenable throb in the air from the mass of life that inhabits its crystal clear waters.

The boat slowly eased in to the lake and almost immediately encountered a breeding coloured Squacco Heron struggling to subdue its frog breakfast in the soft pre-dawn light. A great start to the session.

The boat continued on in a gentle arc around one side of the lake and it soon became evident that the Black-necked Grebes which were so accommodating the previous year were in a very different mood this time and would not allow approach by the boat. Another change from the threes weeks difference in the timing of our visit. Eventually we came to rest on the edge of large lily patch being used by some Common Terns. Normally when I travel overseas I want to spend my time photographing birds that are difficult to find or absent from the UK. I can find Common Terns speeding around the River Mersey at the end of my street in the UK. However, it is also good to spend some time with familiar birds in different settings.

One of the terns had obviously rolled off the wrong side of its lily pad that morning as it appeared to be less than happy with one of the neighbouring birds.

This resulted in repeated diving attacks and subsequent middle air battles which certainly kept four photographers busy.

It was agreed it was time to move on and see what other avian delights where hidden around this lake. The next bird we came across was a drake Garganey but the bird appeared to have a broken wing so we did not stop and left it in peace and to its fate.

Next stop around this bird photographers' paradise were some Red-neck grebes. I was actually happier that we were getting much better encounters with these than the Black-necked variety given the limited opportunity with them the previous year. They are a fairly small grebe and looked superb in their fine late spring plumage. We spent a while with these birds as they gently cruised around us in front of the boat, occasionally stopping to the preen.

A pair swimming and calling in unison

A interesting feature I noted with the birds is that when the neck is compressed the rusty red tone of the neck become much more intense as shown in the photograph below.

Keeping those feather clean and water tight.

Of course as with all birds every preen is followed by a good shake to get those feathers settled back into position.

This is probably a good moment to tell you a little more about the boat we were on which has been well thought out and is operated by Sakertours. It is very stable and comfortably seats four photographers with all their kit. Being low to the water it gives a good low-level angle whilst photographing birds on the water. A canopy is built over the top of the boat which acts as a hide (blind for those of you in the USA). The boat is fitted with glass windows but we chose not to use them. I personally have a strong dislike of shooting through glass. The boat is carpeted to reduce noise and seating is in the shape of large beanbags or cushions. There are two seats at the front for Romi the boatman and for Zoltan to look out for birds and provides directions with simple hand gestures to get the boat into the right position. Power at the back end is by an outboard motor. A silent electric motor would be preferable but due to the abundance of aquatic plants a more powerful petrol engine is essential.

The  light was rapidly getting more intense and it was time to move on, before leaving the small lake we came across another two more Squacco Herons perched in amongst some lily pads and glowing in the warm early morning light.

The second one quickly dipped into the water in front and plucked a large water beetle off the vegetation which with a quick flick quickly disappeared between its bright blue bills.

With the light intensity and temperature rapidly increasing the boat slipped out of the small lake and into an elongated back channel.  Again this was a reed fringed area with dense patches of lilies, water soldier and water mint dotted with the pale forms of Squacco herons. The fragrance of mint filled the air as the warming sun evaporated the oils of the plants. Here is a brief video as we passed down the channel to give you an idea of the scene.


A back channel on the Danube Deta from Richard Steel on Vimeo.

In the distance we could see a long snake-like neck of a Purple Heron emerging from one of the vegetation patches. This was a bird I was keen to try and photograph on this trip having only previously managed some flight photos of them  in Mallorca. However, they are incredibly wary birds and difficult to get close to. The boat crawled along the edge of the channel to bring us close. The young bird, appeared to catch a newt, before taking off on a short flight and fortunately landed in a patch of water mint opposite us.

This was certainly the highlight of the morning so far. The bird eventually took off away from us and soared over the tall reeds behind in long ponderous wing beats.

We back tracked along the channel to where we had seen another Red-necked Grebe. This one was having a bit of territorial dispute with a Great Crested Grebe. Presenting the two contenders...

The larger Great crested Grebe appeared to win the skirmish.....

....leaving the Red-necked grebe little to do but shake down in defeat.

Drifting back along the channel we picked up another Squacco heron and our first Night Heron of the trip before calling it a morning and heading back to base and the inevitable carp broth that was awaiting for lunch and a quick siesta.

What an excellent morning it had been and you can probably see why I have had to split these days over two blog posts especially as, unknown to us at the time, we had a wonderfully productive evening session in some glorious light to come later that day.

Romania and the Last Frontier - Days 1 and 2: Return to the Delta

Firstly apologies for the lack of recent blog updates as it has been a very busy time for me that has included a return trip to Romania which I will recount over the next several posts. Regular readers may recall my trip to Romania last year, which was so enjoyable I decided to repeat it this year. However, this year was going to be different as the journey of discovery would see me heading to the 'last frontier'.

For those of interest in the camera kit I took for  this trip I will get that over with straight away. Packed in my Gura Gear Bataflae bag were the 600mm F 4, 300mm F2.8, Canon 1DX and 1Dmk4 bodies, together with a 1.4x and 2 x teleconvertor together with the usual chargers, spare batteries, memory cards and other small bits and pieces. The Gitzo tripod and monopod went in the suitcase. The only real difference this year was that I did not take the Wimberley Gimbal head but took along the new Uniqball ballhead to try out. The obligatory netbook and two 1GB hard drives were also taken. There is nothing like travelling light!!

So the day had finally arrived and on Friday 16th May I left home at 12 noon and started out on the long journey to the heart of the Danube Delta. This year, having done the journey previously, the long hours of travel ahead seemed less daunting particularly given the lack of terminal change in London. Following the short flight from Manchester down to Heathrow, I met up in Terminal 5 with the three other photographers I would be spending the week with Rene, Paul and Kevin. We touched down in Bucharest after a three hour flight at about 11:15pm local time (2 hours ahead of the UK) and were collected by an airport hotel minibus. We arrived at the hotel after midnight which was a lot easier to access than the heavily guarded palace hotel where we had stayed the previous year. It was a perfectly good hotel and no complaints at 29 euros for the night and given they served breakfast from 3am it meant we would get some food before our 6:30am pick up.

Saturday morning saw us all assembled with our mountain of luggage outside the hotel although the driver was about 30 minutes late due to an accident down the road. We loaded the bright yellow taxi to capacity with people and luggage and headed off on a fairly unremarkable 4 hour drive, accompanied by some terrible music, eastward across Romania to Tulcea and the 'gateway to the Danube Delta'.

We met up with Zoltan and Romi and as we loaded up the boat with our luggage it was noticeable that there was a good deal of  flood water coming down the Danube.  The coffee coloured water swirled in powerful currents around the jetty and chunks of tree rapidly passed further out in the channel. Recent heavy rains across central Europe had caused the river to swell and the speed and volume of water passing was impressive.

The boat journey to our first destination of Mila 23, where we would stay for the next few days, took around two hours. As we were getting closer to the hotel, I began recognising places from the previous year which was surprising as you would think one reed and tree lined channel can look very much like another. Certainly it was noticeable that the colour in the water was reducing quickly as we moved further into the delta, as the huge wetland filtered the sediment from the water. 24 hours after leaving home and we were stepping on to the jetty of the Paradise Delta House Hotel which sits on its own island opposite the small settlement of Mila 23.

We had arrived and were warmly greeted by some familiar faces bearing flammable Ribena in shot glasses and the crazy small white dog (which I think is half canine and half Tasmanian Devil). By strange coincidence I ended up in exactly the same room as last year over looking one of the Danube's  Channels.

I spent the next hour or so settling in and sorting out the camera gear as we would be heading out after a lunch of a rather grim carp and catfish soup on our first photo session.

We boarded onto Sakertours specially adapted hide boat around 3:30pm. It was agreed that we would rotate position on each trip out so everyone got to try a different place in the boat each of which had its own advantages and disadvantages. We had only travelled around 100m from the hotel when our cameras were trained on to their first feathery subject, a Caspian Gull (which is effectively a herring gull with a few minor differences).

Nearby a Common Tern was perched on a small rock that was just breaking the water surface.

A gentle start to get the shutter finger warmed up. Nearby was a solitary Dalmatian Pelican and it was not long before this large bird was also gracing the viewfinder.

Now every one was warmed up and a bit more settled in the boat it was time to leave the area around the front of the hotel and head deeper into the delta's wetlands. We passed along several wide reed fringed channels before entering into one of the vast eastern lakes. Again I quickly recognised this from the previous year where we had spent a morning photographing a Whiskered Tern colony.  The lake did look slightly different though as the abundant surface vegetation that was there the previous year had not fully developed, a subtle difference from our trip being 3 weeks earlier. We paused briefly to photograph a Great Crested Grebe that was gently swimming around and occasionally preening.

In the distance we could see a couple of pelicans standing on a narrow spit of what appeared to be accumulated floating vegetation close to a small island. Pelicans are generally quite wary and we took a wide circular route using a small island as cover to get closer and into a good photography position. The White Pelican was going through the daily ritual of preening and was looking magnificent in the softening late afternoon light.

and then went for a full flapping wing stretch. It felt good to be back here.

A second White Pelican flew in. It is not until you have a pelican flying right at you  that you fully appreciate the size of the huge vulture like wings on these heavy birds. During the middle of day it is common to see large swirling groups of pelicans spiralling upward on thermals to great altitudes.

The incoming bird nearly landed on top of the other one which was followed by a short period of  pelican 'greetings'. I was thinking when taking these photographs that the clump of reeds was slightly annoying and the photograph would have been better without it. However, photographing birds in the Delta involves nothing that is set up you take the birds as you find them in the wild and try and make the most of the situation. This is why I find a trip to the Delta so enjoyable as you never really know what is waiting around the next reedy corner and you know that the images will be unique and different from every day and year. Personally I will always prefer this mobile approach to the that of the fixed hide.

We spent quite a while with these pelicans taking a variety of photos.

Eventually the preening was over and the pelicans drifted off.

Of course what you cannot see in the photographs is about 2 metres to the right of the White Pelicans was one of the rarer and less colourful Dalmatian Pelicans.With the departure of the White Pelicans this soon rose from its slumber and took to the water before eventually taking off and ending a very enjoyable mini pelican photo session.

The sun was beginning to drop quickly now as we continued our journey through the lake and it was inevitable that the first heron species that we were going to photograph on this trip was a Squacco heron which seem to be the most common in the Delta. This one at full stretch having spotted some potential prey.

We left the large lake and moved through some small back channels and into a very small lake. Suddenly there was a synchronised 'stop the boat' call from all four photographers as we all seemed to have spotted at the same time a beautifully lit common tern on a piece of floating lily tuber.

The sun was disappearing very quickly now and in the small lake we managed to find a Red-necked Grebe, drifting around the patches of yellow water lilies, which simply glowed in the last of the warm evening light. In 2013 we only had one encounter with these small grebes in some overcast conditions. This was going to be the first of several over the next couple of days. Another subtle change in the photography from being in the Delta earlier this year. A wonderful way to finish our first session.

The light had gone now so we headed back in the boat towards the hotel and into a beautiful sunset and unfortunately the inevitable waiting meal of carp or catfish in some form or other.

It was great to be back in the Danube Delta, and although it had been a very long and tiring day, the first session had been excellent.  Anticipation was high for the following days to come and the further avian treasures this vast wetland area would reveal to us.