Mariapeel

One of the most beautiful landscapes in the neighbourhood were I live is the Mariapeel, an exploited bog area. The last peat was dug around 1975. In both photos the weather was used as a background setting. The first photo of the man-made fen lake was taken on March 11-th, a stormy day with heavy clouds and some sunshine in between. However at the end of the day the wind dropped and the clouds resolved rapidly, resulting in a few friendly white
cotton-wool shapes in the sky that are reflected by the water. On today’s photo friendly cauliflower-like clouds (cumulus) grew by local heating of the sun into some showers (cumulonimbus).
For both photos I applied a circular polarizing filter, for the latter photo I used an additional ND4 gradient filter to cover the sky and to emphasize the spotlight effect on the dead birch trunk.

Amplexus

Just as last year (see March 2008 on this blog) I tried to photograph blue-colored Moor Frogs (Rana arvalis/Heikikker) in their mating season. The blue color only last for a few days, perhaps even for one night. This time I was lucky to found an amplexus, i.e. the ♂ mounting the ♀ and gripping her firmly, at a small pool south of Eindhoven.

Love is in the air

Already in December 2008 I setup a well-camouflaged hide where I could lie unseen at the bank of a small lake. Today I could freeze some action that I hoped for.
The central female and male Gadwall (Anas strepera/Krakeend) were all the time very close to one another (after all it is Valentine today!). Both snap at the obtrusive drake that flies just in front of them (it is hard to tell from the photo but I think there is even body contact between the males). The leftmost drake is present on sufferance.

Earlier this morning a Mute Swan (Cygnus olor/Knobbelzwaan), catching the first sun rays, was floating by.

Frosty tussocks

After a cold night the sun rises above the “Bargerveen” in the south-east of Drenthe, near the German border. The pattern of tussocks, accentuated by frost and shadow, drew my attention during an early morning walk together with my dad.

Icy ditch

The Biesbosch is a marshy inland area where the delta of the big rivers of the Netherlands begins. Although the North Sea is at least 80 kilometers to the west, the influence of the tide is still noticeable here. I guess this is the reason for the collapsed ice on this ditch.

Icy light

This year king winter rules! From December 26, 2008 till January 11, 2009 temperatures did not cross the zero line. In the nights, -15ºC or even slightly below was no exception near Eindhoven, in the south of The Netherlands.

I really pays-off to visit the same place multiple times under different circumstances. So, on this cold clear morning I went by bike again to the 14-th century watermill “Collse Watermolen” and took another series of photos of the partly frozen meandering stream “Kleine Dommel”.
On the second photo all 3 phases of water, i.e. ice (and both snow and hoar frost too), water and water vapor, are visible. May be it looks like you can take a nice hot steam bath here, but I would not recommend it, the water is around the freezing point and the surrounding air was -13ºC. I used a polarizing filter to enhance the colors a bit.

Icy fog

I always wanted to do ‘something’ with these old crooked poplars that look down solemnly at the small river “Kleine Dommel”.