Gallery – Czech Republic

Although I am filling up the picture gallery on this web continuously since the start of the website in May this year, not until recently I got to the processing of the pictures from different countries where I spent more or less time, stayed for few weeks or months or was just travelling through. Firstly introduced must be Czech Republic of course – my home country...

RadioPopper - radio remote-flash trigger system with TTL

A new wireless system for remote-flash trigger by radiofrequency signal called RadioPopper was introduced in autumn 2007. Since then there have been two main remote control systems used for triggering off-shoe flashes – the IR system that transmits TTL information from the camera but requires the “line of sight” between the infrared signal source (camera, flash in the “master” mode) and the signal receiver (flash in the “slave” mode) and has limited reach and the radiofrequency system (Pocket Wizard), which has quite long reach and does not need the “line of sight” but it does not transmit TTL information from the master unit to remote flash unit. The newly introduced trigger device RadioPopper brings the best from both these widely used systems...

Photo story – fighting Kittiwakes

When we headed north to spend one weekend at Norwegian Runde Island at the end of June this year, I hardly could imagine I would see the best by watching the colony of Kitttiwakes (Rissa tridactyla). I was mainly looking forward to watching Atlantic Puffins (Fratercula arctica) and Great Skua (Stercorarius skua)...

Birdsongs recordings

Everybody who is somehow interested in birds or birdwatching knows that one of the most important signs to identify bird species is the bird singing. The one who knows bird songs has great advantage for birdwatching - not only because it says something about what all species are present at the locality but one can also easily track and find the bird and in some cases also differenciate birds that otherwise look alike...

Birds of British Columbia III – inland

Birds of British Columbia II – Vancouver Island

In the second part of the “Birds of British Columbia” story we will shortly look at Vancouver Island located NW from Vancouver. Although island it is almost the same size as is the Czech Republic. Like in the other parts of northern America we need a car to drive the large distances between interesting places. The only road that crosses the Island from east to west leads to the most touristic area of Vancouver Island around Tofino village with nearby Pacific Rim National park...

Birds of British Columbia I – Vancouver and surrounding

The half business half holiday trip during which we spent almost 4 weeks in British Columbia (Canada) was full of good opportunities for birdwatching in spite of the fact, that the end of July and beginning of August are not the best times for watching birds, especially given that the Autumn migration starts during August and reaches the peak during Autumn months...

Stolen bird-hide

Well, sometimes it is said in Czech Republic that everything that is not tied down with a strong steel chain gets stolen soon or later. I thought that this will not happen with the simple bird hide I made from cheap masking net that I placed close to the Kingfisher burrow at the end of the May. The reason was simple - to let the birds get used to the hide while I was away for one month. I expected to use the hide as soon as I come back at the beginning of July...

Runde 2008 – delayed season

Four days of the last June weekend 2008 that we spent on the Norwegian Runde Island brought a lot of interesting but one little disappointment as well – the Atlantic Puffin that is the main attraction of the island were a bit delayed this year and so one of the main goal of our trip – to watch the puffins bringing small fishes from the sea to feed the chicks in the nest, has not been fulfilled...

Skimmer II – ground pod for wildlife photography

The common rule in the photography about the need to make pictures of live subjects from the level of their sight forces us to go as low as possible with the camera – especially in the case of birds, which move down on the ground or float on the water...

Bird luring using recorded birdsongs

There are certainly many opponents of bird calling among ornithologs and wild-life photographers but the truth is that in some cases bird calling is invaluable aid for both the birdwatching and photography. Here I would like to briefly sum up my first experience with the bird calling that I used during shooting Passerines. It is worth to mention that I have never before read anything about bird calling and so take this report just like my personal field experience...

Skomer Island – watching Puffins in the western Wales

The Skomer Island on the southwest of Wales can be easily compared with the norwegian Runde Island.  Besides similar extent and the fact, that in both cases the bird sanctuary is located off-shore on the island, both places have something more in common – most of the visitors are attracted by thousands of Atlantic puffins (Fratercula arctica) that can be watched and photographed from very short distance...