The last couple of day’s conditions are very misty in The Netherlands. Except for this Sunday morning when I got up early to photograph foggy landscapes :-(. However, the end of the day more than compensated this small sacrifice. I have never seen ground fog coming-up so fast, quite impressive!
The first frost of the year; I can’t wait for the winter to arrive …
One of those grey autumn Sundays. I went with Jarno van Bussel to the Strabrechtsche Heide to search for Jack Snipes (Lymnocryptes minimus/Bokje), which we did not find. There was not much to do. When we were about to go home I saw a trunk covered with Lichens (Cladonia cf./Bekermos), the ones with red caps (here just tiny spots) are also known as British Soldiers, and decided to try some macros. I bend over to take a closer look, and then I saw this Common Newt (Lissotriton vulgaris/Kleine Watersalamander). I choose a wide aperture (short DOF) to emphasize the E.T. look of this amphibian, and of course to have a shutter time that is fast enough to shoot without tripod. After the photo session the newt crawled under the trunk, probably to winter there.
And now something completely different! It was a big honor for me to join Andrew George, one of the winners of the “BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year Award 2011”, to the Ardennes, Belgium. We hoped for an explosion of color in the trees. Unfortunately almost all leaves had already fallen and so we had to deal with autumn colors in this torrent.
This afternoon I had an appointment with these 2 Snipes (Gallinago gallinago/Watersnip). I enjoyed a nice cup of coffee; they probed now and then in the ground looking for a delicatesse. It was cozy and very quiet … until this ADHD Waterrail (Rallus aquaticus/Waterral) appeared on the scene and disturbed our high-tea party. 
