Happy New Year!

I started 2008 in the same way as I finished 2007: with a tour to Zeeland (see December 19-th, 2007). Today I was twice at the right time at the right place.
Around noon this female Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus/Torenvalk) turned up just a few metres besides my car. She was hovering there for a couple of minutes. Finally she spotted a mouse, caught it, and flew away.
At the end of the day I posted on the Brouwersdam, overlooking the North Sea. A drake (i.e. male) Eider (Somateria mollissima/Eider) swam right towards me.

Winterwonderland

The Netherlands was turned into a Winterwonderland! Reed beds, branches of trees, everything was covered with an exceptional thick layer of hoar frost. The most diffuse grey light I have ever seen. Perfect ingredients to compose a fairy-tale world. Don’t you see the elves?

Wildfowl in winter

A cutting icy eastern wind and a pale weak sun that is not able to warm the land; it is winter in The Netherlands! And I like it (I really missed the winter last year). With these conditions wildfowl gathers in huge numbers on the remaining open water in Zeeland, the delta province in the south-west of the Netherlands.
I posted awhile on a dike with a good view on an open water area surrounded by ice. From this position I was able to shoot pictures of a punky ♂ Red-breasted Merganser (Mergus serrator/Middelste Zaagbek) and 2 ♂♂ Teal (Anas crecca/Wintertaling). Teals, which are much smaller, are usually shy and nervous, and quickly take wings. At large distance the males are easily recognized by their bright yellow stern patches.

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.