One of my most beautiful birding trips abroad was the Trip to Helgoland that I did together with Stefan and Tanja. Helogland is a small Island in northern Germany and it is the only Place in Germany where you can find the Northern Gannet. It is a very popular place for Ornithologists since a lot of birds pass this Island during the bird migration season. The northern gannets are one of the biggest birds there and they are breeding at Helgoland. Since they are used to humans presence it is possible to get very close to them and take beautiful pictures. There is a fence as a barrier that you are not allowed to cross and the birds know that this is respected by humans.
When I first saw the Northern Gannet I was really surprised by their beaty and till now I still like them very much. We where there in Mating and nest building season in spring and I had the luck to take a lot of beatiful pictures of these birds.
Helgoland is also popular for a lot of other migrating birds and I really was able to take a lot of pictures of different species there. I hope i can visit this beautiful place again some time in the future.
Couple of Northern Gannets, cuddling. Picture: Florian Glechner.
| Camera used | Nikon D500 |
|---|---|
| Lens used | Sigma 150-600 mm lens |
| Filter used | none |
| Exposure Time | 1/1250 Seconds |
| Aperture used | F5.6 |
| Focal Length | 150 mm |
| Time | 06:51 am |
| ISO | 100 |
In Helgoland there are Two islands that are populated with birds. The northern gannets breed at the bigger Main-Island, at the small Island where the Airport is located you can find a lot of birds in the dunes, a small lake at the middle of the island and on the beach. Helgoland is beautiful but I can't imagine living there permanently it is way too small and outside of birdwatching there is not many things to do there. OK there is a small museum and some nice houses but that's it.
Northern gannets rubbing their beaks together. Picture: Florian Glechner.
| Camera used | Nikon D500 |
|---|---|
| Lens used | Sigma 150-600 mm lens |
| Filter used | none |
| Exposure Time | 1/1250 Seconds |
| Aperture used | F5.6 |
| Focal Length | 150 mm |
| Time | 06:51 am |
| ISO | 100 |
When it is windy then you can make a lot of nice pictures of birds in flight. Especially when the birds need to fight against the wind to land back on the island. Because then they are pretty slow when coming back in and you have a lot of time taking several nice In-Flight pictures. Since this was really one of my first trips where I used my Nikon D500, I had to play a bit with the different Autofocus Modi and the Autofocus Sensibility. It was not perfect at the beginning and I had to do some adjustments to it before I was able to get some reasonable sharp images when objects where moving like this flying birds. But Overall I am pretty impressed by the cameras performance, especially for the speed. Since my Nikon D5100 had a very slow FPS Rate.
Since Nikon has released the Z9 I am a bit jealous about the FPS rate on this camera. It must be just amazing. Nice for sports photography or pictures like theses where the focus and the framerate is better faster than slower. But the Price of 6.000.- € (Euro) is also a bit high. Let's see maybe I can save up some money for this Camera.
Flying northern gannets. Picture. Florian Glechner.
| Camera used | Nikon D500 |
|---|---|
| Lens used | Sigma 150-600 mm lens |
| Filter used | none |
| Exposure Time | 1/2000 Seconds |
| Aperture used | F6.3 |
| Focal Length | 600 mm |
| Time | 08:51 am |
| ISO | 100 |
Hahah Hahah. Picture: Florian Glechner.
| Camera used | Nikon D500 |
|---|---|
| Lens used | Sigma 150-600 mm lens |
| Filter used | none |
| Exposure Time | 1/2000 Seconds |
| Aperture used | F6.3 |
| Focal Length | 600 mm |
| Time | 08:24 am |
| ISO | 100 |
Arguing about the nesting spot. Picture: Florian Glechner.
| Camera used | Nikon D500 |
|---|---|
| Lens used | Sigma 150-600 mm lens |
| Filter used | none |
| Exposure Time | 1/1250 Seconds |
| Aperture used | F5.6 |
| Focal Length | 150 mm |
| Time | 10:47 am |
| ISO | 100 |
And cuddling again. Picture: Florian Glechner.
| Camera used | Nikon D500 |
|---|---|
| Lens used | Sigma 150-600 mm lens |
| Filter used | none |
| Exposure Time | 1/1250 Seconds |
| Aperture used | F5.6 |
| Focal Length | 150 mm |
| Time | 08:34 am |
| ISO | 100 |
Northern Gannet in Flight. Picture: Florian Glechner.
| Camera used | Nikon D500 |
|---|---|
| Lens used | Sigma 150-600 mm lens |
| Filter used | none |
| Exposure Time | 1/1250 Seconds |
| Aperture used | F5.6 |
| Focal Length | 150 mm |
| Time | 06:51 am |
| ISO | 100 |
One of the breeding spots on a Hill. Picture: Florian Glechner.
| Camera used | Nikon D500 |
|---|---|
| Lens used | Sigma 150-600 mm lens |
| Filter used | none |
| Exposure Time | 1/1250 Seconds |
| Aperture used | F5.6 |
| Focal Length | 150 mm |
| Time | 06:51 am |
| ISO | 100 |
| Camera used | Nikon D500 |
|---|---|
| Lens used | Sigma 150-600 mm lens |
| Filter used | none |
| Exposure Time | 1/1250 Seconds |
| Aperture used | F5.6 |
| Focal Length | 150 mm |
| Time | 06:51 am |
| ISO | 100 |
| Camera used | Nikon D500 |
|---|---|
| Lens used | Sigma 150-600 mm lens |
| Filter used | none |
| Exposure Time | 1/1250 Seconds |
| Aperture used | F5.6 |
| Focal Length | 150 mm |
| Time | 06:51 am |
| ISO | 100 |
