Red eyes

Slavonian Grebe (Podiceps auritus/Kuifduiker). Except for a conspicuous red eye they don’t have much color in winter plumage.

40D: Over 10 million pixels

One of the first photos taken with my brand-new Canon EOS 40D camera; it is a 75% crop. So, the 10 million pixels are very welcome! The in-between ISO values of ⅓ stop are also convenient.
This wintering Great Grey Shrike (Lanius excubitor/Klapekster) was looking out for mice, or large insects. I like such birds-in-their-environment shots. Does anybody know why you always take nice photos when you just have a new camera or lens?

Harmony in gray

Often early morning or late afternoon sunlight is said to be perfect for taking photos, but for bird photography overcast skies are usually also excellent. Here you see a Sanderling (Calidris alba/Drieteenstrandloper), one of my favorite species, in a purely gray tone setting on the beach of IJmuiden.

Oder delta, Poland

From 19 till 24 October I participated in a photo workshop organized by Menno van Duijn. We stayed in a plain farmer accommodation on the Polish side of the Oder delta, a region that is well-known for its large White-tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla/Zeearend) population (± 70 pairs). The river Oder runs along the border between Germany and Poland and ends in the Baltic.
When you float around in a small boat with a Polish fisherman that doesn’t understand a word of English and ‘flying doors’ with a wingspan of 2.5 m regularly pass by at close range you become very silent. I enjoyed it very much.
A few impressions, from top to bottom: a) Polish fisherman, b) birch stems, c) nature reserve “Zalewv Szczecińskiego” just before sunrise, and, d) the main attraction.

Hare's Foot

This week, I found many Hare’s Foot (Coprinus lagopus/Hazepootje) on a footpath with chips of wood in the hamlet Hooydonck, close to Nederwetten, the village where I was born. On this photo they are just a couple of centimetres high. This mushroom species belongs to the genus Coprinus, a.k.a. the inky caps.

Number of individuals in a flock

A small experiment. How many birds are visible on this photo? 75, 100, 150, or even more? Take a chance and make a first estimation without really going into the process of counting them. It seems that large flocks are at first sight underestimated, even by experienced bird migration watchers. Anyhow, I did the hard work for you and there are 146 Sanderlings (Calidris alba/Drieteenteenstrandloper) present. And how did you perform? Was my conjecture about underestimation right?

Beach birds

Today was probably the best photo day of 2007. The early morning light at the beach of IJmuiden was superb and the birds were very cooperative. A small selection: Juvenile Ringed Plover (Charadrius hiaticula/Bontbekplevier) resting on the beach and picking something eatable from the shoreline, foraging Dunlin (Calidris alpina/Bonte Strandloper), and the same Dunlin resting.