Spring in the forest - Part one

Snow´s gone.

After a rather cold and hard winter, at least compared to what we have been used to in Denmark the past twenty or so years, the snow has now melted away and the calendar says March, the first month of spring.

These last couple of days it has been amazing to be out in the forest, if a bit chilly because of the wind, but inside the forest where the trees gave some shelter, it has been really nice and it was easy to feel that spring is coming.

As usual I have spent a lot of time, mostly crawling around on the forest floor, with my camera trying to find interesting objects to photograph.

Intense drama in the bog

Easter holiday has begun and thus I have a couple of days of, and what makes more sense than to spend the days out in nature with my camera.

Not so far from my home is a tiny bog where I simply just love to go, and on tuesday I did so to see if I could get some pictures of small birds and other interesting things. 

After nearly 4 hours I still had not gotten any birds close enough to photograph, but then suddenly a pair of ducks landed in the water right before me. They quickly disappeared into som low hanging bushes, and about 30 seconds later I found out why. A second male duck landed and instantly he started searching the area. After a few minutes he found them and then all hell broke loose. The two males fought for the right to the female and at the same time they also attempted to mount her. It was hard to watch how rough they were to each other and especially to the female. Fortunately all came out ok, at least for now.

Raptors and black sun phenomenon

This weekend I went to Aventoft, a nice little town in the northern part of Germany, actually it is right on the border to Denmark, to see and photograph the black sun phenomenon. The event that takes place every year in the spring and autumn, where thousands of European starlings come together and perform some spectacular airshows.

On arrival I instantly had a bad feeling that we were not in the right place, as there were only a few other people there, usually this event draws in hundreds of spectators, but we decided to give it a try since we could not see any major gathering of people anywere else.

As the sun began to set it became more clear to us that we were the wrong place, and our suspicion were confirmed short after when we saw a huge flock of starlings in the distance. We did however decide to stay as there were something even more, to me anyway, exciting. 5 big raptors hovered the area, whether it was court ship rituals they were performing or they were fighting over territory I do not know, but they put on a show for us that were just as spectacular as the starlings.

Unfortunately the predatory birds were to far away for me to zoom in enough to get a clear shot of them, but it was fascinating to watch them in the air. Sadly nor was I able to determine precisely what species they were, I am almost certain there were several buzzards and maybe also a red kite.

Just before the sun was completely gone we decided to take a little drive in the direction we saw that big flock of starlings earlier, and after just a few miles east of were we were we found out where we should have been. There were almost as many people on the side of the road as there were starlings in the air. I counted 7 large busses plus somewhere between 50 and 100 cars all parked at the side of the small road making it difficult for other traffic to pass. 

I found a place where I could park our car without disturbing traffic and got out to see the last of the show and maybe get a few pictures.

It was well after sunset and the starlings were far out in the distance, but by cranking the ISO up to 800 and setting the apperture to f2.8 I was able to use a fast shutterspeed and get at least a couple of useful pictures. At first I was a little annoyed with all the windmills in the background, but after a little time I realized that bit was actually not so bad, and offered a nice variation to the otherwise standard orange sunset that is rather common in the black sun phenomenon pictures.

Speaking of the sunset, it was stunning this evening and just before we left the site with the raptors to go look for starlings, I got a few shots of the horizont as the sun went down and the moon came up.

 

Drought, frogs and otters.

After more than a month without rain, the entire area around the little bog was extremely dry, the waterlevel had dropped a lot and the ground was bonedry. The plants were also beginning to look like they were in need of water, their colors were fading and they were lying down on the forest floor more than standing in their usual upright position.

On Tuesday the weather finally changed and brought som much needed water, it rained almost nonstop the next two days, and I spent as much time as I could with my camera crawling around on the ground looking for anything interesting to photograph.

The wood anemones were still a bit damaged from the long drought, although they did look better than they did a couple of days ago, they had lost many of their leaves and the colors were not as bright as they used to. I did manage to find a few in the lower parts nearest to the water who still looked good.

 

One thing I was especially keen on finding out was if the rain had made the frogs become more active, but sadly I did not see that many frogs. I do not know if this is due to the lack of rain or there just are not that many frogs in the bog, there use to be many frogs in the area but the last couple of years it seems like many have disappeared.

All frogs and toads are protected in Denmark but sadly many of their natural habitats are destroyed as humans build roads, expanding cities or use the land for agriculture.

Fortunately this little bog is located in an area that is not suited for farming or building, and because several endangered species have been found there I have hope that this magnificent area will remain undisturbed and the frogs will once again flourish.

Another reason for the frogs disappearing could be that over the last 5 years otters have become more present, I have seen several otter slides in the area and frogs are on the otters menu.

Welcome to my blog.
My name is Ryan Sigwulf, I am a hobby photographer with a passion for nature, outdoor, fishing, extreme weather and fine beer. 

Being able to express my fascination for nature, animals and all the other things that means a lot to me is what drives me.
Nature has been under extreme pressure ever since humans started exploiding its ressources, and every day species are being whiped out. I hope that with my photos I can lend a helping hand in putting focus on how precious nature is, and how screwed mankind is if we destroy it all.
 
I have been interested in photography for many years but like so for many others,  daily work and chores has been taking up to much of my time the past many years, and I have not been able to get out with my camera as much as I would like.
I have, however, decided that this has to change, I have reached a time in my life where one begins to think about that we do not live forever, and it is time for me to pursue my dream and become a more serious naturephotographer.

 
Black sun phenomenon
In the beginning of April I went to Ribe, the oldest town in Denmark and also one of my favorite places, here I popped in at the local photoshop and had a good talk with the owner. We talked a lot about photography, photo equipment, and then we got to talk about some thing I have known about for many years but had never seen in real life, the black sun phenomenon. This thing only happens in the spring and autumn, and the starlings were there right now.
He showed me some pictures he got the day before, gave me directions to where I could find the birds and the very next day I went to Aventoft in Northern Germany.
Though I had never been there before I had no problems locating where it was going to happen, the dikes were packed with photographers, birdwatchers and a heck of a lot of other people who were out to see the show.
It took a little time before the birds showed up, but when they did it was a spectacular show.
 
 
 

The whole thing was over as quickly as it started, and it became clear to me that if I wanted to get great pictures of these spectacular formations the birds make, I needed to be fully focused the whole time. This was the first time I ever experienced this, and I learned many things so that when the birds gather again in the autumn, I will be better prepared.

I was not the only one who wanted to see the birds, hundreds of people had taken place on the dikes.

 
Anemones and frogs.
 
It is springtime in Denmark and I have spent many hours at a small bog just a little south of where I live, trying to get som pictures of mainly birds and frogs, but also experimenting a little with som macro photography of the spring flowers.
The area around the lake was packed with wood anemones, and I had plenty of opportunity to practice my macro skills. I still have a lot to learn but there is only one way to get better and that is to just keep practicing.
 
 

It was quite fun to once again spend some time on macro photography. Macro is one of my favorite types of photography but sadly also something I have neglected for to long.

The frogs also made their first appearences after the long winter, and especially one frog seemed to enjoy basking in the warm midday sun on top of some water plants.
 
 

I also had the pleasure of seeing, and photographing a frog amongst the wood anemones. I had thought about, for a couple of days, how cool it would be if I would be able to photograph a frog between the anemones, but there were not many frogs and they were mainly in the water so chances would be poor that one actually would come up between the flowers.

Then one day as I was lying on the ground photographing the anemones, a frog suddenly popped its head up between the dead leaves. It was quickly gone but I did manage to get a photo of it.