A number of weeks in the past, I wrote in regards to the lekking show of the Nice Bustard (Otis tarda). A month has passed by and these nice birds are actually settling right down to nesting duties. April is the flip of its smaller relative of the plains – the Little Bustard (Tetrax tetrax) – to do its show.
In distinction to its bigger cousin, the Little Bustard has a set lek. That’s useful if you wish to {photograph} this fowl. Set up the place the lek is, which takes some effort, and try to be able to arrange. Your place at all times needs to be east of the lek. Why? As a result of Little Bustards carry out their soar show going through the solar. They solely do that throughout the first hour after dawn in order that they face eastwards. That ought to be it.
Not essentially. I’ve been ready for them to begin displaying, being in place properly earlier than dawn and listening to their calls with out seeing the birds, in anticipation of an hour’s value of pictures, after which…you realise the wind is blowing from the west and you’ve got an issue. Little Bustards soar going through the solar in calm situations. With wind, they’ll soar into the wind. So, a morning with westerlies produces many pictures, all again views of leaping Little Bustards!
I recall an event once I was arrange in entrance of a lek. It was raining however I hoped it might cease. It didn’t. Little Bustards don’t soar when it rains. I sat with my boots within the mud and the male appeared, doing its greatest to present its name. I knew it wouldn’t soar. I made probably the most of what I received, with one photograph which I entitled “singing within the rain”!
Getting the soar isn’t straightforward. The birds are quick and you must cater for your entire peak of the soar. A bending backwards of the neck because it utters its name is the one clue that its about to leap. After a whilst you get the hold of it however, with solely an hour to work with, you must study quick.
Generally you get fortunate. On one event, a sizzling morning, the male after an hour’s leaping, determined to hunt the shade. It walked in direction of me, every time nearer and nearer, and proceeded to take a seat proper by my disguise, utilizing the shade it offered. It stayed, a few ft from me, for an additional hour, too shut at that time for any images. Mercifully, it moved away and I used to be in a position to get out of the disguise, the place I used to be beginning to bake! However what an expertise, being that near this particular fowl.
