Under here an image taken from inside the ‘Passerine Drinking Hide’, where I spent two full days in june 2013 and one day at the end of july in 2010. The hide was built by the Tour Company Sakertours, who gave us a wonderfull service during our stay in Hortobagy and its surroundings. The ‘bird drinking hide’ is built with a large glass window, covered with a specifically innovated layer. This is not a one-way glass but it does reflect the photon spectrum of natural colours of the environment.

The Passerine Drinking Hide , best of both worlds?

Generally I am not too fond of a ‘ready made concept’ for nature photography, where the photographer gets everything prepared and offered in advance. The reason of my mixed feelings about hiring a hide is the following: for me an important part of the reward of a good image is the preparation, such as building up ecological knowledge and field experience about the target species, as well as spending enough time to observe the species and becoming accustomed with its habits. Moreover one knows often very well what to expect when hiring a hide from a tour company and I’m often afraid to miss the joy of being surprised by more unexpected sightings. The chance of making a unique image, when you have been preceded by five hundred other nature photographers is getting very low as well... On the other hand one can’t deny that for many people who lack the time to spend days and days in preparing things and observing, the concept of a hired hide often allows you to observe truly fantastic species and behavioural aspects at decadently short distances, which is of course a wonderful thing! Many people don’t realize that only ten or fifteen years ago, it was almost virtually impossible to get decent images from many uncommon and shy species. Can you imagine how much time one would have to spend to get a single good image from a species like a Bonelli’s Eagle. It would be a question of weeks, if not months to find a good spot to get a chance of getting a species with such a large territory down to the ground and make it accustomed to a feeding place and the presence of a hide close to it. If you don’t live in a country with a Bonelli’s Eagle population, such a scenario is often out of the question. Nowadays you can just hire a hide in Spain with almost guaranteed pictures from Bonelli's Eagle. So hiring a hide for a day or two is often the only way for many people to get good images from a rare bird or mammal species at close range and observe it’s behaviour without the risk of disturbing it.

The Passerine drinking hide offers on one hand a large number of almost guaranteed species, depending on the time of the year of your visit. So far the predictable part, with its advantage of  being sure to come home with some good images of nice species such as a Hawfinch or a Middle Spotted Woodpecker. But, as a bonus, the forest hide is always full of surprises. Each time I sat in the hide, some less evident species showed up and there were always some interesting moments of intense interaction between birds when the hide is busily visited and the small area gets overcrowded. This makes the passerine drinking hide one of my favourite hides in Hungary.

Under here some sample images taken from the hide illustrating best of both worlds:

A large number of species:

And here some of my favourite moments and images, which have the ‘surprise factor’ in common because of an unexpected species, action or moment:

The lost art of bathing fiercely

It’s clear that birds don’t have to worry about cleaning up their mess after bathing. Since mankind became civilized, human’s older than two years old are being imprinted that splashing fiercely while bathing is not done. You’ll realize this is a pitty, when looking at the spectacle of the bathing birds. Especially when backlit the combination of gushing and falling waterdrops, can compete with the best fireworks. I strongly plea for a new olympic discipline, where the best splash gets rewarded with a gold medal.

Under here, you'll find some serious candidates for an award in the category 'Best Drops and Bubbles'.

And here are some candidates hoping for a medal in the category 'Best Fireworks'.

In another olympic discipline the most intense and artistic movement should be rewarded.

In my humble opinion this male finch comes close to the gold medal.