Alphabetical list

Finally the last species of the tit among those which are considered representatives of our fauna, gets into my gallery. We looked for the tit in many places in Mongolia – in vain. It likes shrubbery and water, and it is very difficult to find such conditions in Mongolia. Only near Ulan Bator, in a bend of a river covered with shrubs we found many azure tits. So many pictures were taken that I had plenty to choose from. I also managed to record the azure tit’s sound. Well, I have definitely a reason for satisfaction.

In the area where I was photographing blue jays were common. It was no problem to take pictures and record their voices. And that they belong to lovely birds and for me it is a new species, and interesting pictures have been created - a gallery must be set up. Just like our jays are attacking white-tailed eagles, blue jays tormented Iberian eagles persistently with their raids. They always appeared in small flocks, especially at a small waterhole, where perhaps a dozen of them or so arrived at once.

Wild Bactrian camels and yaks are a great rarity in Mongolia, and some Mongolians even claimed that these animals no longer lived in the wild. In the pictures presented here you can see animals which are bred by Mongolian nomads. The term “bred”, however, has a completely different meaning in Mongolia than in Europe. Camels and yaks (in the mountains) move across boundless spaces. There are no enclosures, fences or nomads guarding their herds. The animals must be self-sufficient and do exactly like wild camels.

Tanzania-12/2017
Last minute news-Ethiopia-12/2019

It is quite unusual that among all my pictures of the birds in the family Rallidae that occur in Poland you cannot find the little crake but there is the baillon’s crake. Several times I tried to  capture a little crake but I failed.  Once a little crake practically marched under my lens, but it was impossible to take photo with my 400 mm lens from a distance of one meter. The bird completely overlooked that nearby, a few meters away, in the beautiful scenery of reeds there were crawling its favorite delicacies.

Although bald ibises generally kept great distance from us, making many attempts I managed to take enough good shots for an interesting photo gallery. And it was important for me because bald ibises are found only in this part of the world. Almost all images were taken around the town of Wakkerstroom. Very interesting area for bird watching, and as is here in South Africa the case, unfortunately, quite problematic for taking good pictures. Standing by the road (quite busy, asphalt) on its both sides could be seen bald ibises while feeding.

Unfortunately, in the case of this shearwater I was not lucky. It could take only few images, of very poor quality. During the trip Balearic shearwater appeared for a while, and even then I did not start to photograph it immediately. The weight of these shearwaters is about 400 grams and a wingspan is less than 90 cm.