Foxtrott

A day in the Hanság around Rábca at Fertö-Hanság Nemzeti Park

Last weekend we made a trip to the Hungarian area of the Nationalpark Neusiedlersee Seewinkel - Fertö-Hanság Nemzeti Park.
The landscape and nature there seemed more wild and pristine to us than in Austria.
For us as adults the roads and little villages on our trip were like an unexpectedly recreative time laps into the 70s, for our ten year old son it was a new experience - narrow roads without leading lines, some in really bad condition, a lot of older cars (like ours), closed supermarkets after midday...
We went by car to a parking spot near Nyirkai-Hany, a wetland-renaturation-area and then moved on wandering along a gravel path. To our left we saw a lake with summer cottages, to our right the Rábca (Rabnitz) river and the wetlands.

Weather was not the best this Saturday. It was grey and cloudy, fresh wind was blowing, the first day this summer that we needed long sleeves sweaters and every than and now some raindrops kept falling down our heads. But we enjoyed the fresh autumnal air after more than two hot and dry summer months.

We love weeping willows and were pleased about those old trees that bordered the path along the lakeside.
Swallows danced with the wind hunting for insects over the water surface. Fish were jumping.
Then we heard a loud cackling - hundreds of grey geese meet there in the marshland. Noisily flocks of geese flew a few meters over our heads and crossed the sky.

We saw great white egrets, sea ravens (cormorants), grey herons, black crowned night herons, black-tailed godwits and so many more through the bushes and from the observation point at the end of the road.
What an experience!

Binoculars are essential for obversation and birding. We have two, a bigger and a small one. So I used my camera with the 300mm Sigma - not the best for wild animal photography, but most of the time I use it while scouting in our forest, where the most animals are familiar to me and where I can creep up on most of them close enough for good focus and pictures. But from the observation tower and with cloudy light my camera reaches its limits.

So we got down the tower and walked on along the path between Rábca and wetland to get a better view to the lakes and the birds. On our way we met a couple of very friendly fishermen sitting on the riverside, one talking to us in German about the beauty of his land.

We went on birding but became hungry for lunch so we decided to turn around and get back to our car while our son started to discuss with us about watching animals on tv versus real nature adventures. I really got annoyed about this discussion and went on with larger steps to come away a bit.

Suddenly I discovered something hairy red and black flitting into the bushes and the long grass along the wetland in about fifty meters distance.
It only was a glimpse I caught, but I was pretty sure it was a fox.
I love foxes but rarely see one so I was more than excited.
I ducked at the path side and with my hands I suggested to do the same to my husband and to my son.
It sounds crazy to think the fox would come out on the pathway again, for sure he has seen us much earlier than I discovered him.
But in this moment I wished and hoped so much to see him I hardly dared to breath.
Surprisingly the fox really should not have noticed us before, so he turned back to the pathway and began strolling toward us like daydreaming - focused on the waiting meal behind the marsh grass perhaps?
Just imagine yourself squatting on the side of a path and a fox no more than about 50 meters away is coming up to you and does not seem to notice you!

Click click click - both my eyes opened, one looking through the seeker of my camera, the other fixed on the real fox, my finger pushed the shutter button while with my left hand I tried to focus manually, because the automatic is too slow, to freeze this unbelievable meeting and experience.

In the same moment I thought he well noticed us, two of the fishermen crossed the pathway in the background.

The fox turned around, turned back again, his eyes, his body, everything telling about his sudden disaster when he realized humans behind and in front.

Not in panic but calmly and well considered with one last glance at us he walked toward the wetland with all the yummy geese and mallards in it.

My husband, my son and I looked to each other like we had to make sure what we saw was real.
Slowly and gratefully we went back to our car, a wonderful nature experience richer we will remember for a long time.
There was no discussion about tv watching anymore the rest of our trip.

Have you had any nature experience you want to share with us? I would be glad to read about it!

(all pictures are taken by myself with a Nikon D5100 with a 70-300mm 1:4-5.6 Sigma objective)