No Water, No Birds

FUJIFILM X-Pro3 (16mm, f/8, 1/240 sec, ISO160)

Many years back I came here often for bird photography. It was a paradise. This year the birds are gone because the water is gone.

The Neusiedlersee NP is maybe the best location for bird photography in Austria. In spring and in autumn the place is full of migrating birds that take a rest before they carry on to their destination and in winter there are geese and cranes. It is not just a large lake but a network of smaller lakes and wet meadows. But because of the hot and dry spring and summer this year practically all small lakes are gone.

FUJIFILM X-Pro3 (22.7mm, f/9, 1/220 sec, ISO160)
FUJIFILM X-Pro3 (36.5mm, f/9, 1/240 sec, ISO160)
FUJIFILM X-Pro3 (16mm, f/8, 1/2000 sec, ISO1000)
FUJIFILM X-Pro3 (16mm, f/8, 1/240 sec, ISO160)
FUJIFILM X-Pro3 (16mm, f/8, 1/350 sec, ISO160)
FUJIFILM X-Pro3 (55mm, f/8, 1/600 sec, ISO160)

I knew about the situation before we came here but to see it with my own eyes is something different. It reminded me on the Devils Golf Course in Death Valley. Maybe next year everything will be good again. All it needs is a strong winter with lots of snow and a wet spring. But we haven’t had a strong winter in Austria for years.

Last month it rained a lot but it was not enough to fill the small lakes. There were only a couple of small puddles in a sea of dry mud. A very strange and kind of depressing sight.

Regarding camera gear my choice was easy: The 16-55 and the 50-140 are the best lenses to cover the scene. Both are optically excellent. I shot with two cameras in order to avoid lens changes. It’s never a good idea to switch lenses a lot in windy/dusty conditions. Originally I put the 50-140 on my X-Pro3 because of the better AF (for the windsurfer pictures) but later I changed that. The 50-140 balances better on the beefy X-H1 while the 16-55 is perfectly fine on the X-Pro3.

FUJIFILM X-H1 (140mm, f/5.6, 1/480 sec, ISO200)
FUJIFILM X-H1 (50mm, f/5.6, 1/180 sec, ISO200)
FUJIFILM X-H1 (61mm, f/5.6, 1/140 sec, ISO200)

The last couple of images are from the Warmsee, a beautiful small lake where I used to shoot images of wading birds and ground squirrels. But no wading birds and ground squirrels today. This time I took a picture of a dead fish and one of a couple from Switzerland standing on the shores of the “lake”. I assume they are tourists that came here before and couldn’t believe what the saw.

I will definitely come here again next spring to see if the water has returned. This is still a special place but as much as I love to visit the deserts in California or Arizona I don’t want to have a desert here.

FUJIFILM X-H1 (140mm, f/3.2, 1/1250 sec, ISO200)