Bavaria - Predator photo workshop

I spent a pleasant few days with Tatra Photography on the Predator photo workshop. We stayed at the Euler Pension and had two full days in the Bavarian National park. Our first stop was the bear enclosure. Only one pic from the first evening.

On the Monday we were up early and stopped off at the lynx enclosure. Unfortunately, having hired a 100mm -400mm lens, I didn't realise I only had it at 100mm so my photos of the lynx were too small!!!!

S/he is definitely there. Then on to the wolves enclosure. There is a pack of about 12 wolves here and they kept us on our toes by disappearing and appearing. It was their feeding day too, so there was some action although I didn't manage any sharp action shots.

There were times you just had to wait until the wolves appeared so there was plenty of time to practise some landscapes - hence the trees.

The food arrived just after 1 pm.

The lowest wolf in the pack - the omega wolf -came closest to us and stood on a rock. He had a bite on his cheek and on his back. He had his tail between his legs most of the time. The good thing is that sometimes the omega becomes the alpha wolf so he has something to look forward to.

On Tuesday, the majority went straight to the bear enclosure. However, three of us went to the capercaillie enclosure. I filled up a memory card with these birds. Only 3 images here. The female. There were two female capercaillies in the pen but the other one stayed in the tree and ignored us.

The male

Next stop we joined the others at the bear enclosure.

The two bear cubs had to stay away from dad as he chased them away. Here they look as if they are watching out for him.

Mum doing some yoga - a yogi bear.

Dad having a snooze.

The cubs having a fight.

Here are the bear cubs in a sequence where one found something in the water which the other wanted.

Some of us went off to look at the other animals. I took a few snaps of the otter then walked through the wild boar enclosure. One of the group was coming out and told me that he hadn't seen any pigs. I was only in there for about a minute when a few appeared. Again, I had the camera on the wrong mode so no sharp images. I include one here, just to show I did see them. I walked on and met more of the group who hadn't seen any pigs either. Although the animals are in enclosures, they are large and you will not necessarily see them.

Back to the bear enclosure for the last time. We went to another part of the park about 30 minutes away to see more lynx and wolves. Needless to say we didn't see very much. I spotted one lynx and s/he stayed under this log for the 3 hours we were there. We did see the other lynx but not quick enough to photograph. I saw the wolf from the top of the wolf tower. I missed the shot of her jumping in the air and pouncing on a squirrel which she missed.

Last pic of the day was the woodpecker.