Photographing the Iberian Lynx with the OM-1 and 150-400mm lens at Hide de Calera in Spain. Part 1.

[Music] thank you [Music] hi still in Spain but moved to a different location now hides the Carrera or something like that I can't pronounce it but I'll put a link in the description underneath the video the prime subject we're after this time is the Iberian lynx and the reason I'm sitting in the dark is we've just been down to a workman's cuff down the road to get some sort of breakfast the hotel's not up and running at this time of the day and then we'll be off to one of the links hides so far it's not been as hot as on the previous trip it's only got up to 33 degrees whereas on the money gross trip 44 degrees but we started off with some very very heavy rain foreign and not just for a few hours but day and night be in Spain it dries out pretty quickly too at first some of the roads and dirt tracks were impassable but then we could get up to the links there's several highs for them they're all single man hides so these are two separate eyes there's a gap between them and the main draw for the links is the drinking pools the car engine is left running as we transfer very quickly into the hides just to try and cover up any noise they're used to the sound of a car engine and although it's one-way glass there's also a layer of screaming behind the glass just to avoid any Reflections the cats might see and then it's just long Waits I did four sessions with the link and I did try to count the arrows but I lost track after 20. the main food source for the links is rabbits you've got to have a good rabbit population if you want links there are battery operated fans in the hide first of all to keep the glass demisted and then as the day warms up to keep you a little bit cooler it does get hot but after my knee gross this is quite cool very comfortable in fact at 33 degrees but long long Waits and you've got to pay attention the whole time you've got to be looking because they're difficult to see when they're in the shrubbery and there's not that much happening to keep you entertained we did have a couple of visits from ahupu and this bird is interested in something he knows there's something there weather is detected it by sound like a thrush I don't know but he was very persistent in this one spot normally hoopas are moving around a lot but he's staying still there's something down there he knows it can he find it yep now what's that it's big if it's got six legs it's an insect if it's got eight is a spider that must be a spider that's a lot of legs now this next bit's interesting watch as he takes off one of the legs it's about to happen now there he goes I guess that makes it easier to swallow let's look at that one frame at a time he's got hold of a leg a very fast Shake that the slow shutter speed you use for movie can't freeze then another Shake and there's the leg he didn't eat the leg but overall I would say that's a very good meal for poo poo a lot of meat on that as well as taking off some of the legs it clearly wants to stun it before it attempts to swallow it as ever I'm using the 150 to 400 mil on the om1 body and it's got this built-in 1.25 extender and it's so easy to put it in and out I'm going to throw the switch now it's now without the extender so it's slightly smaller in the frame it's just so quick I make good use of that feature and optically unlike other extenders it makes no difference the image does not degrade when you've got the extender installed there were a few small birds like sarins and goldfinches coming into the drinking pool and of course the wood pigeon whenever you get a bit of water you're likely to get wood pigeons they're great Drinkers and then using the pro capture so easy to photograph them in flight so long as they're flying in the right direction they've got to go sidewards or slightly towards you if they go away from you it doesn't work but otherwise this is just so easy to do these days with Pro capture It's a Wonderful feature shutter speed 2500 or upwards there was also a few visits from magpies this bird is a very smart condition these feathers look very nice but the bulk of them were young birds and very scruffy I don't know what they were eating at the bottom of this tree but they were all very interested foreign and finally a lynx the Iberian links once almost extinct its numbers are now building up from a photographer's point of view you're a bit disappointed to see the radio collar and especially when it's so large [Music] there are at least two individuals here that got radio collars but fortunately there were some that didn't too [Music] here's one this is a young cat very interested in that rabbit the adult is carrying worth following I think [Music] interesting about the collar is in certain situations you can't see it it's amazing how that color can disappear [Music] from this side it's very obvious this is where the aerial is sticking out but when the cat faces that way you can't see the collar I was very surprised turns his head and you can turns it back and it completely disappears [Music] a younger cat coming to the drinking pool [Music] now these pictures are taken from a different hide only half a mile away but all told they had eight hides for links but did we have one in front of us for long periods it would just be two or three minutes at a time at the best [Music] foreign [Music] do I take Stills pictures or do I keep the video running I wish you'd have caught something then didn't have to be a rabbit I'd have settled for a mouse [Music] [Music] another thing I have to decide on am I going to manually focus or let the autofocus work bearing in mind that autofocus is not as efficient in video mode as it is stills here I tried autofocus and it worked [Music] and it did catch a rabbit at one point but it doesn't stay around to eat it it takes it off into the shrubbery now these pictures were taken quite late in the evening it was very dull you can see the color has changed that cat is called Romantica and this is one of romantica's cubs they can identify them from the markings [Music] next week we'll stay at the same location but we're concentrate on photographing the Spanish Imperial Eagle thanks for watching

Channel: Mike Lane FRPS

Views: 15,842

Keywords: Olympus, camera, nature, wildlife, cat, mammal, spain

Id: DMejOH2c1VU

Length: 10min 54sec (654 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 16 2023