Back in May when we were allowed to travel again here in Austria, Stefan and I visited the Burgenland and Lake Neusiedler for some bird photography and this is always one of my favorite trips of the year. Unfortunately, we were a little late and a lot of birds were already gone or started breeding, so it would have been better if we were able to visit this place already in April, but this was not possible due to the COVID-19 Restrictions. But I hope next year this will be possible.
But weekends like this are sometimes a bit exhausting because if you want to catch the first sun rays you already have to get up very early. We set our alarm clock at 04:30 am, so we are already on the photo spot when the sun is rising. But this is important in summer because the best light of the day is right after the sunrise and short before the sunset.
This is also one of the reasons we get up early every time we visit the Lake Neusiedler, during Noon time we always take a rest because the light is not so good at this time and also most of the time it is very hot and a lot of birds hide in the reed or under the leaves of the trees to cool themselfes down a bit.
Black winged stilt in the shallow water. Picture: Florian Glechner.
| Camera used | Nikon D500 |
|---|---|
| Lens used | Sigma 150-600 mm lens |
| Filter used | none |
| Exposure Time | 1/2000 Seconds |
| Aperture used | F6.3 |
| Focal Length | 600 mm |
| Time | 06:07 am |
| ISO | 1000 |
This Time I was able to take some pictures of the european Spoonbill that was searching for food in the shallow water of a bigger puddle near the lake. I think these spoonbills are really beautiful and the only place I was able to take pictures of it is "Lake Neusiedler". There was one for a short time at the Steyr-River in Upper Austria but only for 1 or 2 days during bird migration, and I couldn't get there on time to take some pictures of it.
But at least this may I was lucky and could take several pictures of this beauty, one of these you can see here.
Eurasian spoonbill. Picture: Florian Glechner.
| Camera used | Nikon D500 |
|---|---|
| Lens used | Sigma 150-600 mm lens |
| Filter used | none |
| Exposure Time | 1/1600 Seconds |
| Aperture used | F6.3 |
| Focal Length | 600 mm |
| Time | 04:07 pm |
| ISO | 1000 |
There are always a lot of waterbirds at Lake Neusiedler, but you can also find several other species like this European stone chat in the next picture. This is also a bird that I only could find in the eastern part of Austria till now. There should be some on a spot here in Upper Austria, but I wasn't lucky so far there. I have to do a little more research about it in the next time. But I will probably visit this place once again in spring for my next try. Spring will also be a good time for the butterflies and insects that could be found there.
European stonechat on a small piece of reed. Picture: Florian Glechner.
| Camera used | Nikon D500 |
|---|---|
| Lens used | Sigma 150-600 mm lens |
| Filter used | none |
| Exposure Time | 1/1000 Seconds |
| Aperture used | F6.3 |
| Focal Length | 600 mm |
| Time | 06:57 pm |
| ISO | 100 |
Another bird species I really like very much are the black winged stilts and I already showed you several pictures of their mating this time I was a little late for the mating ritual, so I only found some of these birds looking for food in the shallow water. They are also always very photogenic, because they are so concentrated on looking for food that they come really close to you if you lie down on the lake shore and keep calm and motionless. This last time I had the luck to take some pictures of the redshanks mating, I already showed you the pictures in this post here. https://peakd.com/hive-106444/@florian-glechner/mating-of-the-common-redshanks
Black winged stilt in the shallow water.
| Camera used | Nikon D500 |
|---|---|
| Lens used | Sigma 150-600 mm lens |
| Filter used | none |
| Exposure Time | 1/1600 Seconds |
| Aperture used | F6.3 |
| Focal Length | 600 mm |
| Time | 02:47 pm |
| ISO | 1000 |
They look so funny when they pick small insects from the water. Picture: Florian Glechner.
| Camera used | Nikon D500 |
|---|---|
| Lens used | Sigma 150-600 mm lens |
| Filter used | none |
| Exposure Time | 1/2000 Seconds |
| Aperture used | F6.3 |
| Focal Length | 600 mm |
| Time | 03:21 pm |
| ISO | 1000 |
Common redshank. Picture: Florian Glechner.
| Camera used | Nikon D500 |
|---|---|
| Lens used | Sigma 150-600 mm lens |
| Filter used | none |
| Exposure Time | 1/2000 Seconds |
| Aperture used | F6.3 |
| Focal Length | 600 mm |
| Time | 02:48 pm |
| ISO | 1000 |
Common redshank. Picture: Florian Glechner.
| Camera used | Nikon D500 |
|---|---|
| Lens used | Sigma 150-600 mm lens |
| Filter used | none |
| Exposure Time | 1/2000 Seconds |
| Aperture used | F6.3 |
| Focal Length | 600 mm |
| Time | 02:48 pm |
| ISO | 1000 |
Common redshank. Picture: Florian Glechner.
| Camera used | Nikon D500 |
|---|---|
| Lens used | Sigma 150-600 mm lens |
| Filter used | none |
| Exposure Time | 1/2000 Seconds |
| Aperture used | F6.3 |
| Focal Length | 600 mm |
| Time | 04:01 pm |
| ISO | 1000 |
You always find the best birds and get the greatest photos!
Haha come on, I had some great days in spring this year. Now in summer it is getting harder and harder to spot these birds because a lot of them hide from the warm sun and only show up early in the morning when it is still not so hot. Still I try to find some of these water spots where they gather around.
Of course I try to visit places like the Inn River or lake Neusiedler because these tend to be bird hotspots. So sad that spring was so short, and was even shorter due to the COVID-19 lockdown. But next year I hope I have a little more time in the spring to enjoy also birds that are here only during migration. Ok I spotted and saw the cranes here during migration but I still missed a lot of them. Maybe when they come back from the north to fly back to Africa for their wintering location I have some luck again.
We all missed out on a lot this past year, didn't we? Hopefully better times to come for the whole world.