Waiting for the Bearded Vulture

The Bearded vulture is a magnificent bird that is luckily regaining possess of the Italian Alps. He usually feeds on carcasses of dead animals, but rather than eating meat, his diet is mainly bone marrow. It lets the bones fall on the rocks down below to break them and eat the marrow inside.

Hoping to spot, and photograph, the Bearded vulture, Gipeto in Italian, yesterday I went with some friends to a location in the Piemonte Alps. Unfortunately the wind was extremely strong and that was probably the reason the bird of prey did not show up.

               Wind was particularly strong, especially as soon as we arrived...

But the trip was not totally "useless": the location was great and while waiting we were able to spot other animals worth shooting with our cameras – not to mention the "polenta and spezzatino" we had as a late lunch, when we got down to the village.

Some Chamois were looking for grass on the rocks, where there was less deposit of snow, showing their ability to climb very steep areas.

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Also, an Alpine chough kept flying over our heads to get down every so often, looking for food. This bird has a yellow beak and bright red feet and is very similar to the less common Red-billed chough, that has both bill and feet red.

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And before we could even realize it, a large male Alpine ibex approached us from behind the big rock structure where we had stopped, and we were able to enjoy such a wonderful close encounter, for the few minutes the animal stayed in the area before disappearing from our sight. Both Chamois and Ibex are beautiful with their thick fur during the winter season; they will shed with the approaching of spring.

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Both the mammals and the Chough (this one especially) are pretty dark and taking pictures of them against the white of the snow requires compensation of exposure done in a proper way. Finding the right balance is key, in order not to have too much black for the animals and not loose all the detail of the snow at the same time.

Wild Horses of the West

Last summer, during our visit to Yellowstone, we took a detour to Cody because I wanted to photograph the wild horses. As you probably know, horses are not originating from America but were brought to the continent by the Spanish and then the British, so the ones we find today are descending from those first horses, probably groups left behind by the conquistadores or escaped and survived in the wild. Still, the wild horse has become such an icon of America and the wild west.

I heard about this group of horses not far from Cody, Wyoming, and thanks to the precious tips of Sandy Sisti we were able to spend some time with these wonderful animals.

That morning it was cloudy and we woke up with a light rain falling from the sky... the day was not starting in the best way. After driving for some time out of Cody, we reached a large kind-of-desertic area where we started our search. Our guide was driving a 4-wheel drive, the only possible way to reach the animals, but the rough terrain was giving everybody a hard time holding ourselves and trying not to bump our heads against the car roof because of the uneven "road" (if you can call it that way...).

Despite the flat appearance, the land was filled with small hills and valleys that made it difficult to spot the herd, so we drove up to the highest mesa to be able to have a good view, and from there we were able to spot them. It actually took some time to reach the horses, but after leaving the car, we got closer on foot. Our guide gave us some instructions and commented that, being the day not particularly hot, we would probably not encounter any rattlesnakes... While Denise thought "Thanks, God", I thought "Oh, too bad... I would have liked to photograph one!" Ha ha ha.

The horses were by a water pool, a precious spring to drink and resist the dry and hot climate of the area. Especially some of them were marked by a lot of scars, signs of the frequent hard fights among the stallions.

Unfortunately they moved pretty soon, and I wasn't able to take any particular shots... just a little fight, but from a distance, after they had already abandoned the water pool. At least the weather was getting better and we were gifted some sun and patches of blue sky. We tried again, got back to the car, and after another driving around, we were able to find the herd again, now calmly eating grass, under the attentive look of the stallion guarding the group.

It was already late and we had to leave soon. Too bad we had to go back without nothing really happening. Too short a visit to be lucky enough to get any dramatic shots, but I was happy anyway of the opportunity I had to see live these wonderful animals in the wild.

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Beautiful Robin

Especially during the winter, I like to take pictures of this beautiful little bird that often visits our gardens and feeders. It's extremely cute when it's cold and it "becomes puffy" fluffing its feathers to keep itself warm... sometimes it looks like a little feather ball!

It's very easy to spot, with the extensive orange area on its chest. That is actually also the only common visual trait with its American cousin, which share the same name, but belongs to a totally different family – you can see a couple of shots here. When I heard for the first time the other bird being called "robin" I was surprised to see a much larger bird and with such different plumage. The European species is the Erithacus rubecula while the American robin is the Turdus migratorius.

I see the robin most of the times alone, moving quickly in the bushes or on low trees, like many of the small birds do. It seems it likes to feed on the ground, mostly insects, but sometimes it doesn't disdain also hanging feeders.

So far not too much snow around, so I am still missing one classic shot of the bird in the snow, such an iconic image, representing often the Holiday Season in book illustrations, but I hope to get to it... one day.

And talking about book illustrations, I would like to dedicate this post and its photos to a friend of mine, Anna, a children's book illustrator who loves robins and all the other little friends from the woods. Enjoy.

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A Brief Encounter

Though the main purpose of this trip was to see and shoot the Black Grouse courtship activities during the peak of the mating season, the Swedish forest gave us the opportunity for a brief encounter with a nice little owl.

The Boreal Owl (Aegolius funereus), also known as Tengmalm's Owl, it is said to be very shy and elusive, so difficult to study and apparently not as much is known of this species, vs the other owls.

Our chance to take a picture lasted just a few seconds, the time the owl popped out of the hole in the tree to check who was out there. Not much light at that moment so the photo is a little grainy, but still I am happy to have been able to shoot this nice nocturnal bird.

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The Great Crested Grebe

The photos you see in this post have been shot either last year or this past April. Though I have not been successful in my goal to get very good photographs of the whole courtship dance, I got a few shots that I want to share while hoping to get better ones in the future. And anyway, mating ceremonies apart, I think this is a beautiful bird, especially when it changes his aspect during the good season.

The Great Crested Grebe, in fact, has a wonderful plumage in the summer, with head and neck "decorations" that during the courtship are displayed in full.

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They eat fish, but also crustaceans, frogs and insects. The specimen I observed last year were feeding a lot on lake prawns. They often rest, sleeping with their head kind of hidden in the plumage or stretching their legs that are positioned quite towards the back of the bird.

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When they dance they stay one in front of the other and move in turn the long neck with characteristic movements. They often get algae or some water plants keeping it in their beaks, almost as a mating offer. 

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Last year I was able to observe just part of the dance, while last April I also saw the two birds doing the special "running-on-water" step. They were quite distant one from the other but they both dove and disappeared at the same time. After a few seconds, they surfaced with plants in their beaks and "ran" up to the point of getting belly against belly and lifting each other up, continuing this incredible "run-on-water". Unfortunately it lasted just a few seconds and I was able to take just a few shots. Light was bad, and I am not extremely happy with the result, still, it's a "first" for me.

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