Tag Archives: Gallery

New gallery: Uganda

Now you can visit the Uganda Photo Gallery, with photos of the different especies we saw, some of them in danger, like the White Rhyno, some other endemic ones, like the Red-throated Bee-eater (Merops bulocki), The Great Blue Turaco (Corythaeola cristata) and the White and black casqued Hornbill (Bycanistes brevis), and not to forget about the Mountain Gorillas and the Chimps.

In Uganda you can see more than 1.000 bird especies. We saw around 350, but unfortunately it was not possible to take photos to all of them, only a small number of them, as the distance and the light conditions of the leafy places prevented us from doing so.

Our itinerary included the following places:

  • Mabamba Swamp, near Entebbe, the capital, where we saw the Shoebill, a huge rare bird which lives at this swamp.

  • Mburo lake
  • Bwindi NP. On the day we arrived, we did a walk thru the rainforest to see some birds, being the Great Blue Turaco among them. On the following day we did a Gorilla traking. We were lucky on one hand, as they were not far away, but unlucky on the other, as the hour we were allowed to stay with them was not so productive as they moved a lot thru the rainforest and we had to spend so much time following them thru an inclined and difficult area.

  • Queen Elizabeth NP – the only place were we saw some lions. We also saw some endemics there: the “African Wattled Lapwing” and the “Papyrus Gonolek”, the last was so hidden among the papyrus plants, its natural habitat.

  • Kibale NP. Where we did the Chimps tracking. Chimps were most of the time at the top of the trees, moving all the time, but at the begining a couple of them came to the ground and we were able to take some nice pictures. There are different groups of people tracking for the chimps which look for them in different areas, however, when one of the groups founds the Chimps family, the guide informs his/her colleagues about it and all the groups join. There could be more than 50 people for a single chimps group, which is unpleasant for both parties.

  • Kibale Swamp, round trail around a swamp, quite productive in terms of bird especies sight and also some monkey sights: Red Tailed Monkey, Red Colobus Monkey…
  • Murchison Falls NP: where we did a boat trip to the falls and back, and were we were able to see a lot of bird especies such as “Giant Kingfisher” and the “Pel’s Fishing Owl” as the more especial ones. We also saw a big number of mammals at the rest of the park: elephants, oribis, hippos, waterbuck and the “Patas Monkey”, among others.

  • Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary: a reserve where they breed and proctect white rhinos with the aim of reintroducing them back into the wild at some Natural Parks of Uganda in some years. This is a long-term project. They currently have 19 of them and we were able to see a female (Nandi) and a 1 year-old cub (Sonic). Being so close of these animals which are in extremely high risk of extinction was a very special experience for me.

I wish you like the photos that I have selected to create this gallery.

I’m looking forward to the next travel…

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New Gallery: Birds

Dear all,

After thinking a lot about it, I have finished the photo selection for a new theme gallery and it is the time to show it to you: it’s the “Birds” gallery.

At the “Birds” gallery you’ll find some photos taken during short travels or one-day trips, which are not included into the galleries dedicated to the “places”.

Some of them have been included in previous posts, so you maybe remember them, however most of them weren’t published till now.

The photos from this gallery were taken at the following places:

  • Andújar: when I go there to try to see the Iberian Lynx I take the opportunity to photograph the little birds that visit the bird feeder that a local photographer has. I really thank him for his kindness and hard work.

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  • Parc Natural del Delta del Llobregat: close to the Barcelona airport, I go there from time to time, to do a quick trip on the morning or on the afternoon. It’s amazing being able to enjoy this little “oasis” at few minutes from home (by car).

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  • Extremadura: a one-week tryp around the region. The photos where taken at the Monfragüe National Park, the Barruecos and the Sierra de San Pedro (the last ones taken from one of the Photo Raptor’s hides).

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  • Farne Islands, Seahouses and St. Abbs Head: another one-week tryp, this time a bit further, to the UK.

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You can leave your comments into the form below.

Many thanks for taking the time to have a look at them. I wish you enjoy them.

See you soon!

Esther

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New Gallery: Borneo

The Borneo Gallery is available from now on. Photos of some endangered species such as the Orangutans, the Borneo Pigmy Elephants and the Proboscis Monkeys can be found there.

We travelled to the Sabah region of Borneo, which belongs to the Malasian part of the isle.

Our itinerary included the following places:

  • Mount Kinabalu NP. Our visit to this area was limited to the parc services area, per the temporary closure of nearly all the paths due to an earthquake and some landslides caused by some hard rains that happened later. Some of the paths have been opened at the beginning of December 2015, but the Mesilau area, where the pitcher plants we wanted to see were is still closed and there is no tentative date for its re-opening.

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  • Pooring Hot Springs, where we saw the Rafflesia, the biggest and rarest flower of the world, about which I already gave you more details at my previous post.

  • Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center, founded in 1964. They rehabilitate and reintroduce orphan orangutans into the nature.
  • Kinabatangan river and its inflowings, where we were able to closely see from a small boat a group of Bornean Pigmy Elephants that were taking a bath at the river. This is also one of the few remaining places where the Proboscis Monkey (Nasalis larvatus) lives. Endemic from Broneo, it is extremly endangered as it exclusively depends on this fragile habitat which is threatened by the Palm Oil Industry.

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  • Danum Valley Conservation Area, 438 square kilometers of primary forest, mainly untouched… a paradise where we were able to see some wild Orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) and Red Leaf Monkeys (Presbytis rubicunda), among others.

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  • Tabin, secondary forest (it is not what it used to be), but we were able to see Müller’s Bornean Gibbon or Grey Gibbon (Hylobates muelleri), two different types of otters: the Hairy-nosed Otter (Lutra sumatrana) and the Smooth-coated Otter (Lutra perspicillata) among other interesting animals.

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  • Sepilok Rainforest Discovery Center (RDC), very close to the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center, it’s an Environmental Education Center. There is a Canopy walkway and some observation towers within the Kapili-Sepilok Forest Reserve. The Plant Discovery Garden and displays a big number of Bornean plants. We were able to see some orangutans and Hornbills here.

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The photographs included in the gallery would like to represent the different species that we found thru our itinerary.

I wish you like them.

See you soon!

Esther

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New Gallery: Ethiopia

You can now visit the Ethiopia Gallery, where you’ll find species as emblematic as the Ethiopian Wolf, which I already wrote a post of it, or the Gelada Baboon, both endemic of this country.

We visited the following places during our travel:

  • Awash NP, where we found a big number of birds. I would like to highlight the Beisa Oryx among the mammals.

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  • Bale Mountains NP, where we visited three areas: Gasay, Saneti Plateau and Harena Forest where we were able to see the Mountain Nyala, the Ethiopian Wolf and the Bale Monkey, respectively.

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  • Wondo Genet, a good place to see birds. White-cheeked Turaco and Silvery-cheeked Hornbill were the most spectacular among them.
  • Abiyata-Shala NP, where there are different Hornbill species.
  • Bishangari Lodge. Difficult access, close to Langano Lake, it’s surrounded by life and nature. A Fish Eagle is around there, but unfortunately we were not able to take a picture of it.
  • Lake Zeway. There is a fishermen harbor, and there are lots of Pelican, Marabou Stork and other water birds. Lake Koka, near there, is also full of water birds.

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  • Debre Libanos. On the way to the monastery there is a group of Gelada Baboons. It was so difficult to get close because people (adults and children) throw stones to them so the Geladas are so distrustful.
  • Lake Tana. There are some isles with temples, but it is not allowed for the women to access them, so we visited an orthodox church at the other side of the lake. The paints are impressive. See this Saint George with his dragon…

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  • Gondar. We visited a church and the castle.
  • Simien Mountains, the last spot of our itinerary, where we saw the Gelada Baboons, which are bigger and furrier than the ones at Debre Libanos, and much more trusting than them; as it is a Natural Park, nobody disturbs them. Other species to highlight are the Lammergeier and the Capra Ibex.

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The travel took place during September, the end of the rainy season. This is the reason why we mainly found an intense green landscape, so different from the image I had from Ethiopia.

I wish that the photos show the biodiversity of the country, and that you like them.

 

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New Gallery: Macro

Dear all!

From now on you can visit the new gallery “Macro” where you’ll find a selection of photografies taken using these techniques, that will grow with new photos in the future.

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Till now, all the galeries where of the places I have been visiting, and apart from them there were those photos taken near home. It has more sense to join them into a theme gallery. For this reason, the old “Galleries” secction is now divided in two, named “Places” and “Themes“.

I hope I can add new galleries and photos to this new section, quite soon.

I wish you like them and I am looking forward to your comments.

Posted in [:ca]Notícies[:es]Noticias[:en]News[:], Galleries, Macro Also tagged , , , , , |

New Gallery: Norway

From now on, you can visit the new gallery: Norway

As I already explained in a previous post, the main objective of this travel was to see and to take photos of the Northern Lights, but we also had time to do other photos and to enjoy the nature.

As it was not too cold (despite of the 20ºC temperature difference with Barcelona, we were most of the time few degrees over 0) we explored the area by ourselves. During the day we drove around searching for prospect places to take the photos, to came back later, at night) . This allowed us to capture the Norwegian Autunm colors and a reindeer group.

Weather conditions were a bit stronger at night (specially on the last days when we reached a few degrees under zero), but they never were extreme: the humidity of the coast or around the lakes and the wind make us feel it was cooler by some degrees, but we were able to stay under those conditions due to the winter clothes we weared.

I recommend, to those that could do it, to go to see the auroras… they are impressive! See how they move and how the fill in the sky, one or more light arches 180º wide, from one side to the other side… it is spectacular, and above all, it’s quite difficult to explain in words.

In the meantime, you can have a look at the selection you’ll find at the Norwegian gallery. I wish you like it.

See you soon!

Posted in [:ca]Noruega[:es]Noruega[:en]Norway[:], [:ca]Notícies[:es]Noticias[:en]News[:], Galleries Also tagged , , |

New Gallery: Tanzania

From now on you can have a look to the images of the new “Tanzania” Gallery.

Those that know me well, you know that at Tanzania my index finger went crazy and that I shooted too much photos… so it was a hard job to select some of them.

It was so hard to classify the species shown in this gallery. The mammals and birds books / guides we had contained only the English and the Scientiphic version of the names, so I had to surf the net to look for the Catalan and the Spanish versions. Unfortunately I haven’t found all of them… a few are missing (so if you know any of the the missing ones… I’ll be so grateful if you tell me those). I enjoy classifying what I photograph and, as I am just a begginer, it’s a kind of personal goal I have fixed myself.

I also would like to explain you how difficult it is to take photos with hight temperatures. We were able to see the heat coming up from the floor so often. In these situations, the auto-focus did not work and trying to manually focus using our eyes was also difficult because the heat also lied our sight.

All these photographs were taken between September – October 2009, during the dry season. As you’ll see, the landscapes and the colours are so different from the previous galleries (Iceland, Slovenia and Donna Nook). In this case, the golden dried grass is the main character in most of the photos, however the green also appears from time to time.

I hope you enjoy them!

Esther

Posted in [:ca]Notícies[:es]Noticias[:en]News[:], [:ca]Tanzània[:es]Tanzania[:en]Tanzania[:], Àfrica, Galleries Also tagged , , |