Saturday, December 31, 2011

Happy New Year!



We have almost accepted the fact that the New Year's Eve in Bryansk Forest will be rainy, but just recently the rain has turned to snow and the ground turned white.

The New Year has already came to the Eastern regions of Eurasia, and in several hours we will all be celebrating the start of 2012!
I wish you happiness and love!

Originally posted by at С Новым годом!

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Little bison favorite pastime!



Good morning from Bryanskiy Les nature reserve! The favorite pastime of a one and a half month old bison, that we call Mefodiy as my readers suggested, is to butt with grown up bulls. It seems like adults like this game as well, they even step down into the ditch to level themselves in height with a baby.

Originally posted by at Доброе утро из заповедника "Брянский лес"!

Dreary days...


The days now are the shortest in a year. My home village Chuhrai, population of 9 including my family, looks colorless and melancholic. I already wrote about my village in this post

(Translator's note: also you can read more about people and history of the village in a book The Storks' Nest, written by Igor's wife, nature writer Laura Williams)









And this is the border of the neibouring village, Smeglizh. This is the road I use every work day to take my two sons to school.

Originally posted at Тусклые дни.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Friday, November 11, 2011

What shall we call him?


We have wonderful news! It is unknown yet, if it's a "boy" or a "girl".

Originally posted by at Как мы его назовем?

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Why does a bear rise on his rear feet?



How does a bear behave when encounter a human? In most cases he runs away. But before running he almost always would rise to stand on his rear feet. And this behavior does not indicate the attack, as many people think... (Click below to read more)

By doing so this animal orientates himself on the ground and satisfies his exploratory instincts. Bears have excellent scent and hearing, but his vision fails sometimes. It is difficult for a bear to clearly see human or another source of danger through tall grass, tree branches and among stones. So by standing up tall he can see better.
On a rare occasion a bear might start an attack on human after getting up on rear feet. But for the actual attack he will get back on all fours anyway.
It is an amazing experience to see a bear standing up on his rear feet: animal resemblance with humans is phenomenal. The head of this large mammal is usually raised over 6.5 feet above the ground at these moments.





Sometimes a bear stands up on his feet during fishing; this way he can better see fish in the water.




Originally posted by at Зачем медведь поднимается на задние лапы?

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Autumn moods. Kamchatka dreams.



















Originally posted by at Камчатские сны. Осеннее.

Are there any foxes in Bryansk Forest?



Very frequently I recieve this question in the comments, so I will answer in a separate post.

Of course there are foxes in Bryansk Forest. I see them almost every day. But I do not have any photos of them. They are very cautious, and no wonder, they were hunted for for many centuries in this part of the world. Bryanskiy Les nature reserve's area is too small to establish the population of foxes that would not be afraid of people, as they are in huge Kronotsky Nature reserve in Kamchatka. However I found this photo of local naive fox-cub. I took it in the beginning of May several years ago not far from his borrow that was less than a mile away from my village house.

Originally posted by at Есть ли в Брянском лесу лисы?

Alisa and a meadow mouse. Kamchatka dreams.



Translatior's note: Alisa is a fox that we know from the previous stories, such as this one and many more, that can be found under foxes label.

Originally posted at Камчатские сны. Алиса и полевка.

Our little herd of bisons is getting ready for winter!




Good morning from Bryanskiy Les nature reserve!

In the end of October three more bisons arrived from bison nursery in Prioksko-Terrasnyi nature reserve to to Bryankiy Les: Murkuaza, Muntanna and Munatep (see the full story at european-bison label). Our little herd of total 10 animals, 5 cows and 5 bulls, will soon be released to start a new population in a wild. But for now our bisons are adapting in a large enclosure. Some of the animals will be wearing satellite collars and the reserve scientists will be monitoring their position in real time.

This work on restoration of european bison population in Bryansk Forest is part of a larger project aimed at bringing these bisons back to the wild throughout all the forests of European part of Russia. Among approximately 200 bisons, that are living in the wild in national park Orlovskoe Polesye and in nature reserve Kaluzhskie Zaseki, there are many, that were born in a wild! And that is a great accomplishment!

Originally posted by at Доброе утро из заповедника "Брянский лес"!

Monday, October 31, 2011

Kamchatka dreams. On the banks of the Kronotskaya River.



Originally posted by at Камчатские сны. На берегу Кроноцкой.

Kamchatka dreams.


It has been already 1.5 months since I came back to my home in Bryansk Forest. During the year that I was away, a great deal of work has accumulated here. So now I have to work hard and do not have time for many things. I did not even start sorting my photos from this year Kamchatka archive, because I decided to buy a new, high quality monitor to replace the old one to work them. But I will have to drive to Moscow to get one. (Translator note: Igor lives in a remote village in Bryansk region accessible only by dirt roads. It is at least 8 hours drive to Moscow.)

Nevertheless, Kamchatkan thoughts come to my mind independent of my will. Almost every day, without any practical reason, I check the weather conditions in Kronotsky Nature reserve. A week ago my son, Petya, came back from Kronotsky and showed his photos from reserve special task force team everyday life. These rangers (and Petya is one of them) just came back from a several weeks long patrolling expedition to the most remote corners of the reserve. Seeing his photos has started my Kamchatkan dreams; every night, just as if it was a tv-show, I started seeing dreams-episodes about Kamchatka.

Most frequently I see shoals of large fish in crystal clear water. I also see the animals that I know (today, for example, I’ve seen my friend – fox Alisa, she was hunting for mice). Also I dream about hiking to the places, to which I did not have a chance to go to yet… Couple of times, in my dreams I’ve encountered a bear and did not have my gun with me – those were scary and woke me up.
This is my life: I see Kamchatka in my dreams when I live at home, and when I live and work in Kamchatka, I have dreams about Bryansk Forest. It’s a pity that we can’t photograph our dreams yet:).

And also, many of my readers write to me, that they miss Kamchatka. So I decided that it will be easier to miss it together. So I’ll start publishing my photos from Kamchatka under the collective name – Kamchatka dreams.

My favorite volcano, Kronotskaya Sopka, is on this photo. The view is from the marshy maritime tundra.

Originally posted by at Камчатские сны.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Frosty morning.




It was 8C below freezing (18F) at the daybreak today. The grass, still green, was covered with dense white frost... Fallen and frosen leaves were rustling underfoot and first ice cruckle as I walked in frequent autumn puddles...



Originally posted by at Минус 8 на рассвете.

New friends have arrived.



Three more bisons made it to Bryankiy Les: cows Musavra and Muzanna, and a young bull Muston. Two of them were brought from Prioksko-Terrasnyi nature reserve in Moscow region, and one came from Okskiy nature reserve in Ryazan region. So now we have total of 7 animals: three females and four males. You can only see six of them on a photograph from yesterday, because the bison from Okskiy reserve arrived late in the evening, so it was dark and snowy when we were releasing him.


And this is their colorful tranportation unit from Prioksko-Terassnyi nature reserve.

Originally posted by at Пополнение в стаде.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

First snow!


Good morning!

Originally posted by at Доброе утро! С первым снегом!

Beaver's lodge.




These are the ponds that were created by european beavers in the proximity of "Bryanskiy les" nature reserve headquaters. They built series of dams on a small forest river Terebushka. And beaver's lodge is their house, that is pictured on the top photo.

Originally posted by at Бобровые запруды у конторы заповедника.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Mysterious photo.



Do you think it is a multispectral image of space?

Early morning at Nerussa River.





Good morning from Bryanskiy Les Nature Reserve!

Originally posted by at Доброе утро из заповедника "Брянский лес"!

European bisons. First days in Bryanskiy Les Nature Reserve.



Today I had time to observe our new settlers, European bisons. For now they are living in a large enclosure, but when the other members of this future herd of 10 will arrive, we will release the animals.

New home for European bison.



European bison - is heaviest surviving land animal in Europe. When last vast expands of wild forests were destroyed as a result of expanding civilization, these bisons survived by pure chance in several nurseries and zoos, where they are sucessfully bred. Now, it is believed that only Russia has large enough forests suitable for long term conservation of these species in the wild. Currently the bisons are being reintroduced in Orlovsky, Kaluzhsky and Bryansky regions. In national park Orlovskoe Polesye and in nature reserve Kaluzhskie Zaseki tens of bison cubs already were born in the wild. And today four new residents arrived from Okski nursery to nature reserve Bryaskiy Les.




















Originally posted by at Зубриное новоселье заповеднике "Брянский лес".

One day at Lake Baikal.


Our Lake Baikal voyage started from a village Uzura on Olknon island.

Last week I spend in Irkutsk on a all state meeting and workshop for the nature parks of Russia. There I made a presentation about opportinities in education and popularization for nature reserves and parks using blogs. In the end of that week my colleauges from Pribaikalskiy National park and Baikalo-Lenskiy Nature Reserve organized an excursion to Lake Baikal. We only spent 24 hours at the lake, but we still got to experience a lot.

On a small boat we made it from Olkhon to cape Pokoinyi, where we spend a night at the ranger station of the nature reserve. In total I only had several hours to see and photograph the bright fall colors of Baikal nature... I wish I could stay there for several weeks.


The sharp cliffs of Olkhon shore are part of Pribaikalskiy National park.











There are snags at Baikal too!



A weather station on cape Pokoinyi inside Baikalo-Lenskiy Nature Reserve.



















Originally posted by at Сутки на Байкале.