Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Sergey Gorshkov

Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Winner: Wildscapes On 29 November 2012, Sergey received the call that he had long hoped for. Plosky Tolbachik – one of two volcanoes in the Tolbachik volcanic plateau in central Kamchatka, Russia – had begun to erupt. “I’ve gone to the area many times, but it had been 36 years since the last eruption,” he says. “So I dropped everything and went.” The only way to approach it was by helicopter, but extreme cold (-40°C) meant Sergey had to wait until it was warm enough for the helicopter to take off. Flying towards the volcano, the cloud of ash, smoke and steam was so thick that he couldn’t see the crater. But every so often, a strong wind blew the clouds away, and he could see a 200-metre-high fountain of lava spouting out of the crater and fast-flowing, molten rivers of lava running down it (some of these would travel 10 kilometres, sweeping away everything in their path). As gusts of hot air buffeted the helicopter, Sergey worked fast, strapped to the open door. “I just kept shooting, kept changing lenses and camera angles, knowing I had this one chance, hoping that I’d take one image that might do justice to what I was witnessing.” That was indeed his last chance. At 1am a new explosion happened, the ground rumbled, huge lava bombs threatened the campsite, and a heavy rain of ash and smoke made it impossible to take pictures. Says Sergey, “I have been to many places and I have seen many extraordinary things, but witnessing the Plosky Tolbachik eruption deeply impressed me.”

Salon.com

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Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Serengeti, a foutain of wildlife

The best of Serengeti

The Serengeti is among the main Tanzania\’s Natural Parks, being one of the most engaging resources for Safaris in the world. The name Serengeti is an estimation of the word employed by the Maasai to describe the area.

The Serengeti Parkcovers 14,763 km2, but its region is just incredible. Two World Heritage Sites and two Ecosphere Reserves have been revealed in the 30,000 km2 region thatincorporates the Serengeti National Park, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Maswa Game Reserve, the Loliondo, Grumeti and Ikorongo Controlled Areas and the Maasai Mara Countrywide Reserve in Kenya.

All Tanzania\’s Countrywide Parks make up some 14% of the country's land area, being wellknown that Tanzania has lovely nature reserves rich in animal life. The Serengeti National Park, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and the Maasai MaraGame Reserve across the border in Kenya, protect the greatest and most varied collection of earthly animal life on earth. These spaces are one of the last great migratory systems still untouched that can be noted by the visitors.

Serengeti: animals, plants and much more

The essential features of climate, vegetation and fauna have hardly modified in the past million years, being its ecology one of the very oldest all around the globe. TheWildebeest travel thru a variety of parks, reserves and protected areas andthrough a variety of habitat.

Human beings made an appearance in Olduvai Gorge 2,000,000 years ago. Some patterns of life, modification, death and migration are very old here. Visitors can explore the different forms of vegetation and landscapes of the Serengeti ecosystem and meet some inhabitants.

Safaris in Serengeti

Tourism sub-structure have developed well and two new hostels and luxury, beguiling camps conforming to \’international \’ standards have opened in the area in the last year. Over 90,000 tourists visit the Park each year.

Safari is a Swahili word. It implies \”journey\”, but in English language and many other languages, the meaning has become a synonyme for a wildlife viewing adventure in the African bush. \’To go on safari \’ In Tanzania is all an experience in the middle of the nature.

Tanzania: a really stable country

Tanzania politically has been among the most stable African nations. In regard to safety, both for its own citizens and for tourists, it is well before its more economically advanced neighbours. Tourism increased especially in the last years, becoming one of the main industries in the country, and this sector supplies the country an interesting average of its incomes. Online Marketing campaigns have been developed and here there is its success.

The migration, a magnificent wonderful in Africa

Between the best attractives of Serengetti can be found the migration, for which Serengeti is maybe most renowned.

Over a million wildebeest and about 200,000 zebras flow south from the northern hills to the southern plains. The reason is that they are looking for the rains each October and November, and then swirl west and north after the long rains in April, May and June.

The traditional instinct to move that no drought is so strong that risks, gorge or crocodile plagued river can hold them back.

http://www.safaripark.es has more information about Tanzania in Spanish

Serengeti, a foutain of wildlife

Observing Nature Is A Very Popular Past-Time

Bird watchers absolutely love garden birds because they are their passion. This passion is fuelled by a desire to see as many different kinds of birds as possible, as well as record them in a log book that details the observations made about the bird. To many this seems strange but it is equally as normal as gardening.

There is so much wildlife around us but nobody seems to take it into consideration. Many people think England is bland and boring with nothing dangerous in the wild, but there are Adders and swarms of stinging insects that have killed people before and probably will again if we remain ignorant.

People will travel hundreds of miles to get a good look at a bird if they are passionate enough. When a Russian bird landed in the town of Chipping Norton bird watchers flocked from everywhere in the UK just to get a glimpse at this one animal.

Having a passion is brilliant, and for many it is birds. The reason for this is that there is a huge variety of birds for people to see and record notes on. It can take a person their whole life to fill up a book with recordings on birds, but this book will prove highly valuable to someone else.

The television show Planet Earth was a phenomenon that got loads of people involved. There are a huge number of people that own the series on DVD and watch it over and over again. The reason for this is that they love to observe the wildlife on Earth.

People really do like to observe animals. The sheer volume of people watching nature programs shows this to be true, and although people may deny it, nature is beautiful. By being mindful of the nature around us we can all start to understand what bird watchers see in the hobby that they pursue so avidly.

GardenBird.co.uk are bird food suppliers. They have a massive range of products that all bird watchers will appreciate and use in their hobby.

Observing Nature Is A Very Popular Past-Time