MyBlog – solaner

…. from East Poland, from Białowieża, to be precise.

Over the last week, I was in Eastern Poland next to the Belarus border. This time for photographing wolves and bison, and other animals roaming in and around the Białowieża forest of Białowieża National Park. What a difference in comparison to Andalusia, where I came back from just a day before my departure to Poland: snow instead of sun and temperatures between -3 and +3 versus 10-18°C. According to our guide, we were quite lucky, because the week before our arrival, it had around -16°C during the daytime.

I started my trip on Monday last week, and on Tuesday, the excursions started. Twice a day, we made an excursion to the wilderness, first at six in the morning until ten, and a second from 1 p.m. to about 5 p.m. So, each session lasted about 4 hours. It was partly a safari, by searching for the animals, then hiding to (hopefully) be able to photograph them, and partly waiting hidden, camouflaged in the forest for them.

We had a local ranger as our driver. Despite the area being a national park with restrictions to protect nature, our ranger had licenses permitting him to enter these restricted areas. As the forest was previously used to grow wood, there are numerous roads that part the area more or less into huge squares. Many of those roads are nowadays forbidden for individuals to enter. We learned from him that animals like to use human roads when roaming around because it’s easier for them. In addition, there were more than 50 camera traps accessible for him to see where the wolves are when active. He was also able to read their tracks in the snow.

From the camera traps, he also knew about a lynx in the area, a male in search of a female, as the behavior in the recording revealed. For about two weeks, a pattern was visible from a couple of camera traps. It seemed he was checking the border of his territory. Thus, our guide concluded,  he could be met the next day or the day after next with a bit of luck. Unfortunately, he did not appear again.

But we were able to meet wolves three times. From the camera traps, we knew where to search and spotted them in a cross street, drove further in our direction, and used a parallel road to overtake them and hid in the bushes at the side of the road straight from the spotting point, hoping they didn’t change their mind and direction in the meantime. Fortunately, the plan worked very well. A couple of minutes later, two wolves appeared in our sight, a few hundred meters away, still following the road and coming closer and closer. When the leading one noticed something, he stopped and started looking around for a couple of minutes (seconds? – but it felt like minutes), trying to figure out what was different from the past he was in that place. They still kept calm. From the EXIF data of my camera, I can say they were only 56 meters away from me. They remained completely calm and did not move excitedly. According the our guide, that’s the normal behaviour in such situations. They are not aggressive, but reasonable. They try to avoid human encounters. When their sixth sense alerts them, they first stop and look, and listen carefully to find out what’s different from the last time they were in that certain place. He explained it with a stone newly put in the road. When they come to that place the next time, they will notice and evade to the side. When they come there again and see the stone is still there, they will examine the stone and decide if they will accept it. So, even if we were hidden well, and they were not able to discover us directly, they have noticed a change. Thus, they stopped. But we got photos.

Our second encounter was very similar, except that it lasted longer until the wolves appeared. The third encounter was also the same approach, but we were about 2 minutes too slow. We were not perfectly hidden when they approached in our sight. This time, there were at least three wolves. The place where they appeared was a crossing. The leading wolf directly headed to the right, the second appeared at the beginning of the road where we were hidden, and through the trees I was able to recognise a third one heading to the left without coming directly in sight. In the end, decided to vanish to the left. Later, our guide pointed out, one of us was sitting in the snow on the right side of the road, where he could possibly have alerted them too early. But I guess, it could also have been the case that they wouldn’t have taken our road anyway.

When there was no noticeable activity reported from the camera traps, we hid similarly but hoping that by chance a wolf would pass by, and waited between 1,5 and 3 hours in one place. Unfortunately, completely unsuccessful. In those cases, we spotted red deer, roe deer, a stone marten, and red squirrels. I was even able to photograph a very furry fox, a brown owl, a sparrow hawk,  and a single grey crane in shallow waters, while seeing a few more in the air or far away in the fields (you know, they are very shy and have a large escape distance).

We were also lucky to meet moose: 1 mother with her calf, but she was too well hidden in the woods to photograph them, and a single female coming out of the bush into a clearing.

The other planned animal was the European bison. Although we also had to search for them, it was a bit easier. They also roam around freely, but less fast. We met them in grassy openings as well as in the woods. Both environments gave us fantastic photography opportunities. The European bison is smaller than the North American bison, but still extremely impressive. I will tell you more about them in a future post.

As our trip progressed, the weather warmed up significantly.  The fields, once blanketed in snow, were now free of it, while the forest retained some snow on its roads as well as off-road.  However, these forest roads became increasingly slippery due to the thawing during the day and freezing over at night. Consequently, we frequently navigated through swallow creeks alongside our tracks. At the same time, more and more people were on the way on the forest roads. Thus, fewer animals were recorded by the camera traps, and icy or wet roads don’t record any animal tracks. Thus, our guide could only guess where to search for them and rely on their droppings.

Our last day’s safari was thus more or less involuntarily dedicated to photographing only bison, but at beautiful warm morning light over frozen grass. Two big males were in an opening right next to the street, and when we arrived, already about 10-15 photographers were there. All of us behave properly. No-one bothered or chased the animals. They continued grazing seemingly without stress. It was quite a peaceful and calm experience next to the huge and mighty animals. So, we were able to capture some unique and amazing images.

Wildlife photography isn’t a matter of wishful thinking. It’s about seizing opportunities, not forcing anything, and being happy with what works. Otherwise, visit a zoo, but even there encounter is not guaranteed.

If you’re also following me on Instagram or on Vero, you might have already seen some bison, and another one is here. It’s the last image taken during the whole trip.

 

Take care!