Fair Fieldfare

Another digital souvenir from Terschelling was this proud Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris/Kramsvogel). As all thrushes, Fieldfares are alert and rather shy, however, this 1-st year bird could be approached with a car, serving as a mobile hide.

Toys on the beach

This week I stayed a few days on Terschelling; a good place to forget about all the things that kept me so busy lately, to refresh my mind, and to get new inspiration.
In winter, Sanderlings (Calidris alba/Drieteenstrandloper) are always present on the beach on the north-side of the island. Usually they run like mechanical clockwork toys along the water-line, parrying waves and picking up small animals thrown up by the sea. But sometimes they need a short rest break. They seem to sleep, but one bird kept a keen eye on me (who is that bloke crawling to us?).

Invasion of the Nutcrackers

Nutcrackers (Nucifraga caryocatactes/Notenkraker) occur in areas with spruce forest, for nesting and rich supply of arolla pines (or hazel) for winter food stores. Nuts and seeds are cached in the ground layer during late summer, and nut depots are memorized in detail and can be re-found in winter with great accuracy (without a GPS :-), even beneath thick snow cover.

Central European breeders (race caryocatactes), which are vigilant and shy, are mainly residents. In some years, when arolla pines are in short supply in the far northeast, large flocks of the slender-billed race (macrorhynchos) migrate in autumn from Russia and Siberia all the way to West Europe. These birds are often remarkably tame. This bird stayed near Horst, Limburg for 2 weeks could be approached to less than 5 meter, and seems to be part of the 2008 invasion.

Master of camouflage

An earnest wish came true. Today I photographed Snipes (Gallinago gallinago/Watersnip) at close range. This master of camouflage decorated the last 100 Dutch guilder banknote (before the introduction of the euro on January 1, 2002); by the way the most beautiful design of paper money I have ever seen.
Snipes might look a bit stocky and slow, but this is certainly not the case. They are exremely fast and have an unprecedented catapulting and erratic zig-zag flight.

Who's afraid of yellow?

Autumn provides loads of colors and an abundance of interesting subjects to photograph. I took this picture in the early morning along the road to which I cycle to my work.

Secret light

The secret light just before sunrise on a ordinary autumn day. This photo shows “Het Starven” on the “Strabrechtse Heide”.

Birdpix weekend 2008

The tradional “Birdpix” photo event is held in the first weekend of October on Terschelling, one of the Dutch islands in the Wadden Sea. Birdpix (http://www.birdpix.nl/) is an Internet community for bird photography.
This year the weather was rough and stormy, sometimes resulting in bizarre skies. On the first photo you see heavy clouds in all shades of gray above the Wadden Sea, with just a touch of sunlight. The next photo demonstrates the process of early natural dune formation. As for bird photography, I want to show the ‘reptilian’ head of a Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo/Aalscholver) and a delicat vagrant of the Siberian taiga, viz. Yellow-browed Warbler (Phylloscopus inornatus/Bladkoning). The latter was photographed in the rain.