Nightjar ♀ keeping her 2 one-day old chicks (not visible) warm. The partly closed eye shows that the bird is at ease; it enhances her camouflage even further. At 22h30 PM ♂ and ♀ start to feed by turns; while one parent is out, catching moths, the other parent keeps the pulli warm. (A colleague nature photographer told me that 10 days later 2 healthy juveniles left the nest site).
I joined Arie Ouwerkerk, Kees Ouwerkerk, and Iolente Navarro on a short butterfly trip to the Eifel mountain range in western Germany. Besides many Blue-spot Hairstreaks (Satyrium spini/ Wegedoornpage), shown above, we find a.o. a few worn Apollo’s (Parnassius apollo/Apollovlinder) of the subspecies vinningensis.
Photo 6: Such an action shot is what I longed for. All is well that ends well. The breeding bird of photo 5 is now feeding one of the chicks.
Photo 4: Although some offspring is airborne (previous upload), others are still bound to the nest platform, unable to fly. Compare this upload with photo 1 (see June 10-th, 2011) and notice how both the juveniles as well as the Water Mint (Mentha aquatica/Watermunt) have grown in 2 weeks.
Photo 2: Adult Black Tern (Chlidonias niger/Zwarte Stern) hovering above the platform, encouraging her (or his) youngsters to do their wing exercises.
This month I fully focused on the breeding behavior of Black Terns (Chlidonias niger/Zwarte Stern).
A couple of days ago I explored this field and already selected this group of Heath Spotted Orchids (Dactylorhiza maculata/Gevlekte Orchis) as the main subject for a wide angle shot. For this Ascension Day morning the weather forecast predicted ground fog after a calm and relatively cold night (± 5°C). This is exactly what I was waiting for. The only thing I had to do was to be at the spot before sunrise (which is at 5h30 AM!). But I was rewarded; if there is a heaven out there it may look like this.
