Photos

I have been a frequent reader of the Norwegian photo magazine Natur & Foto since their very first issue. And in that very first issue, there was an article about Bence Maté and his Hidephotography project. Located at Pusztaszer not very far from our summer house. I wanted to try bird photography, so last autumn, I had my first walk in the area which resulted in this one picture:

I could only imagine how it would be in the spring. The area is so much alive then.

Later that autumn Bence Maté was voted BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year (2010). This made me want to visit his hides even more. After a phone call two days were set, I was this year’s first person to visit him. A little bit early in the season, but what a thrill!

Bence has built around 20 hides, both on his doorstep and around Hungary for photographing birds. The hides are very lavish and include the tower hide which overlooks trees where I managed to shoot this picture of a kestrel and his breakfast:

After the early morning session I was taken in to the forest, Bence has made several forest pool hides around his traditional Hungarian farm house. These hides are much cooler than the tower as they are sunk into the ground. I was actually almost freezing! They are also fitted with the mirror glass and look out over a concrete pool filled to the brim with water and lined with logs to disguise the edges. They can seat about three people. But we were only two, me and my guide, Gergely Nagy. On a still day, the water acts as a mirror and I got some wonderful reflections of the birds as they came to drink and bath.

At the pool hides I was able to shoot several birds, among them a Common Buzzard:

The Buzzard was jumping from tree to tree above the pool hide for about a 15 minutes. The waiting and praying was almost driving me crazy! The hope of getting such a magnificent bird on a 3 meters distance was to much. I could hardly sit still. And finally, it came down and posed for me for a long, long time:

When it finally left, I was exhausted! But there was more fun waiting for me. A group of jays had during the morning hours made a lot of noice in the forrest and they were getting closer and closer. The jays seemed even more shy then buzzard. They must have been 4 or 5, but only one would get down to the water at the time:

In the afternoon we took the trip to a hide at a lake close to the village Baks. I was to see a lot of white and grey herons, and not to forget a swan that was getting on my nervous. I was close to become a criminal in a national park. Not good, not good at all!

A grey heron found it’s way up to the hide and started cleaning it’s feathers 2 meters in front of me. It was so close that I could almost have grabbed it. The blood was pumping fast, just as the camera clicks. What an exciting day! But there was more…

The most beautiful creatures at that lake must have been the spoonbills. One got a little bit closer then the others, but sadly not as close as the grey heron.

I am not sure that I have found myself a new hobby. This was the first time I’ve done bird photography and I got memories for life. But I am not sure that a hobby goes on getting up when other go to bed is something for me. One thing is sure, I will take the ferre and visit Bence again…