vrijdag 23 mei 2014

Black grouse Olympics 2014


This was my fifth year of photographing black grouse during their courtship. I wanted to do things a bit different this year. I had some ideas in my mind and managed to realize some of them. See here the result of one of my ideas.... A photo reportage of the "Black grouse Olympics" 2014.

Opponents: Knut versus Ole 

First game: Two person dance battle.

Ole starts off with an impressive jump...

but slips and allmost falls during the landing. He manages to balance...a good safe.

Knut responds with an open wing backward jump.

Ole quickly follows with an open wing forward jump...

and continues with back stretched forward jump.

But again slips on the ice. That will cost him some points.


Yeah.... the jury is definitely not impressed. Ole's agressive style is not paying off on this slippery ice and Knut wins the battle.

Second game:  5 wing flaps forward jumps.

 Knut starts with a modest jump with not much ground clearance. Probably he still needs to warm up a bit.

Ole doesn't wait and directly begins with a fully wing stretched jump.

 Knut seems to have warmed up and increases the height of his jump.


Ole's next jump is an impressive one, with the wings fully stretched he manages to get the attention of the jury.

Knut tries to improve, but looses points for not pulling in his legs. 

Again Ole comes with a perfect jump and catches the eye of the jury.

Knut finishes with his best jump of the day, but it won't be enough to catch up with Ole.

Also the last jump of Ole gets the full points, with which he wins this game.

But what is that... Knut seems to be upset about something and rushes to the jury.





He thinks Ole used 6 wing flaps in his last jump, which would disqualify him.

However, the external jury (with excelent eyes) counted exactly 5 wing flaps. So no disqualification.

Third game: The stretch jump (best out of three).

First up: Knut
Jump 1.

 Jump 2.

Jump 3.

That last jump impressed the jury so much, that she stopped cleaning her feathers.

Now it is Ole's turn.
Jump 1.

...not impressed.

Jump 2.

Jump 3.

The spectators cheer.

That last jump got her attention again. They both get the same score. It is a tie.

Fourth game: Since it is a tie, the fourth round is a open round. The competitors can choose their favorite moves. 

 More spectators gather to see the final show.


 Ole opens with a sideways jump.

Knut with a perfect open stretched wings jump.

Which Ole directly repeats in perfect style.

...a perfect synchronized jump of the two competitors.

But that was not what Knut wanted!

A fight breaks out.

...the jury quickly gets out of the way!





Knut picked a hole in the head of Ole. 

This means that Knut gets disqualified and Ole wins the games.

Ole doesn't waste any time and directly takes his price....



And after that he had a smoke. ;-)



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