Austria 2025

A little while back I bought my first house, and since then I've been pretty busy working on it most weekends. To get a little break from work and the construction, I took a week off and spent it in the Austrian alps. I didn't do a ton of prep work, but was hoping to see Ibex, Ladies slipper orchid, alpine salamander and a couple of alpine bird species. I saw most targets, although a few alpine bird species will remain on the list for another day. The week started of rainy, but most days the rain was light enough to go out, and the light is a lot better than with harsh sunshine, so I wasn't too bothered about it. Below are a few shots from the first few rainy days.

We also spent some time in a small woodland where Ladies slipper orchids grow in massive numbers. The flowers were abundant and while it took some time to get into a creative mood to take some shots, I can't really complain with the selection below, I'm pretty happy with the diversity. When busloads of old people started to show up we headed off, checking a spot for alpine salamander. Although I had flipped logs and rocks here and there already, no luck yet. As the heavens really opened I found several individuals, got some shots of 1 of them, and headed off before my gear got proper soaked.

The last 2 days were dry, so we finally had a chance to do some slightly more technical hikes without too much risk. We spent my birthday hiking up quite a ways, and I got lucky with a huge group of ibex, aside from a ton of red deer, chamois and marmots. After a while I went back down, some good shots in the pocket, my favourites of the trip being the silhouettes. I could have spent some more time up there, but as my partner had been waiting for me for a couple of hours already, I had to compromise :). The last day was dry and sunny, and I saw a highly desired three-toed woodpecker and pearl-bordered fritillary. No good shots due to the harsh light, but still, good stuff :). The moor close to where we found them wasn't very impressive and looked very dry, so no cool dragonflies. Satisfied and ready to get back to construction we headed off.