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.

               294mm f/8.0 1/1000sec ISO500 +1

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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.

                                      400mm f/8.0 1/1000sec ISO1250 +1.33

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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.

               560mm f/5.6 1/1600sec ISO320

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The European Lynx

I have always loved the lynx. It has a powerful and elegant look at the same time, and the characteristic tufts at the tip of the ears give this animal such a distinctive personality. It happened only once I saw one in nature, and that was actually a bobcat, in California, smaller than the species I am talking about here. 

Due to the difficulty of shooting such a shy animal in the wild, I decided to go to the Bayerischer Wald National Park in the Bavarian forest, to try and take some photos of the lynx under controlled conditions. As I mentioned earlier, I think this is a very good training field for the nature photographer, even though we can't certainly compare these to shots obtained in the wild after long and careful hiding and study of the behavior of specific animals in an area. At the same time, even in controlled conditions, getting a good shot is not straightforward and that gives a certain satisfaction when you get away with good pictures of the animals.

I had a couple of opportunities to shoot the lynx, even though both not ideal. The first time the animal was resting and that went on for five hours, until the light, after the sun set, got really too little to be able to shoot. The second time, after a four-hour wait, I was able to get a little more movement, but some of the action was first covered by some trees and then again the late hour and the cloudy sky made it tougher to take good shots. Despite all that, I am pretty happy with my first shots of the lynx and I am dreaming one day to be able to take some in the wild as well.

             EOS 5D Mark III – Canon EF600mm f/4L IS USM f/5.6 1/125sec ISO 800

              EOS 5D Mark III – Canon EF600mm f/4L IS USM f/5.6 1/640sec ISO 800 +1

        

             EOS 5D Mark III – Canon EF600mm f/4L IS USM f/5.0 1/320sec ISO 800 -0.33

            

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             EOS 5D Mark III – Canon EF600mm f/4L IS USM f/6.3 1/500sec ISO 640 +0.33