TomKal foto

Well, I was trying to take pictures of the bluethroat, unfortunately with no success. It is hard not to appreciate the charm and beautiful singing of the bird. So finally I have two more reasons for  taking pictures to initiate the species on my website. Well, there was an opportunity in the Netherlands, when I was taking baillon’s crake it had a break in the midday and was less active so I could  take pictures of a bluethroat, among others. Not only I managed to take my first satisfactory photos of this bird but I also captured two bluethroat’s subspecies (Luscinia svecica cyanecula and Luscinia svecica svecica - called Scandinavian). I put these two subspecies in one gallery because in Polish and in English they both have the same name. Only the Latin names differentiate between these two subspecies. The visual difference between these birds is the color of spots on the birds’ throats. One of them (cyanecula) has its spot white while singing, the other (svecica) - brown. I was able  to record the singing bird (cyanecula / white spot). Bluethroats are smaller than sparrows. They weigh about 20 grams, with a wingspan of about 22 centimeters. They occurred in quite unusual, as for bluethroats,  area because in the rape fields, and far away from wet meadows or forest wetlands which cannot be found so easily in the Netherlands. The exhibition is a little monotonous, but in the rape photo session I could not do better. Fortunately due to the fact that the birds were not too far from me it was possible to take satisfactory images, opposite to situations that often happen in my case, when the first photos published are of documentary value. The bluethroat, and actually the bluethroats finally hit the tomkalfoto.pl –welcome...
Last minute news – 04/2018
The second contact with the Bluethroat was not as fruitful as the first, but as befits the birds in our country, the bluethroat was very secretive and kept a considerable distance. Nevertheless, it has to be noted and two photos has been added to the gallery to commemorate this meeting – here in Poland my first with representatives of this species.
Last minute news-01/2022-Egypt
This should be written about. In Poland, it is a very rare species and difficult to photograph without a proper hiding place. Meanwhile, in Egypt what I saw after observing ospreys shocked me. I have seen ospreys in other countries, but there the birds were not that close and never accepted such close proximity to humans. There are several islands in the Egyptian Maldives (Hamata), actually islets. I saw an osprey nest on practically all of them, and this is where - on ground! We swam to one of these islands and it was possible to go down to it. The whole island could be walked around in a few dozen minutes, and there were three ospreys' nests on it. Amazing, unusual and I have included some pictures to illustrate this. Osprey got so used to humans that during our stay on the island (several dozen people) copulated. Another osprey sat on the dune and I slowly approached it, taking better and better photos. Eventually I got so close that the bird was in full frame and there was no point in reducing the distance any further. The bird watched me steadily and did not fly away. It was only a close meeting. You can see that undisturbed (other predators) are doing well on the islands, despite the presence of people, because there is crystal clear water around and thousands of fish under its surface. Isn't this an osprey's paradise?