We have just spent a week with John Gooday and Zoltan Pabar in Hungary to photograph the native birds, Zoltan is the expert conservationist, guide & photographer behind www.Hungarobirds.com and John Gooday is the professional Photographer from the UK teaching you everything you want to know, thought you knew and taking you to the next level in as plain or technical detail that suits you.
We decided to book with John after reading his website and excellent guide at www.johngoodayphotography.com it seemed pointless and very time consuming to attempt a trip there ourselfs, blindly looking for any target species we wanted. The most valuable knowledge is local knowledge, thats why the team of John and Zoltan work so well, Zoltan knows the wildlife like the back of his hand, and has spent all his years exploring the quieter places were he helps conserve his country's wildlife, building nest boxes, recording successful fledglings and working with local farmers and landowners to protect them. Then theirs John, ive been on quite a few workshops in the past but its clear if theirs one person who deserves to be called a professional its John, his knowledge and enthusiasm seems limitless, weather your a Canon or Nikon user hes made it his job to know both systems. Hes got so many tips up his sleeve im sure well need another trip out there in the future.
Every day was an early start, we have to get to the sites before the birds are active, less disturbance, its cooler and most importantly the light gradually gets better, so its up at 3.30am, setting off at 4am and in the hides around 5am, you'll get picked up at approx 9am when the lights to harsh. Get to bed early !
Top Tip: as with all hides, let the birds land a few times and go about there business before you even take a shot, then when your ready, start off in quiet mode only taking one shot till there used to the sound of your shutter, carefully watch the birds reaction to the noise and move your lens very slowly if your not on target. If they bob down slightly and make direct sight with you back off till they look settled, after a while they'll generally go about there daily routine. This is the point when you can save yourself lots of time, if you go in all guns blazing and flapping your lens about be prepared for either a long wait or no shows. Take it easy and enjoy the first moments just watching.
Day 1 - The Hoopoe
The first Hoopoe arrived at 6am with a large black beetle for one of its four fledlings, of course if your familiar with the calls of this amazing bird youll hear them allot earlier. The two adults continued to feed there young for a few hours, on the menu were crickets, catapillers, grubs and beetles. When the Hoopoe lands its usually got its crest up so thats when to get your image. Its such a beautiful bird and this was the first time ive even seen one with its striking fan of feathers as a crest and Hoop noise it was making to communicate with the young in the nest. We were extremely lucky to see this bird as whilst we were at the site the young were fledging right in front of us, if they'd all fledged a day earlier we would of only got distant views, and seeing them so close was a experience ill never forget.
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