Feet of floor

At the pier of IJmuiden you can always find interesting birds at this time of year. Checking out the beach revealed a few groups of foraging Sanderlings (Calidris alba/Drieteenstrandloper). This time I managed to capture the characteristic feet-of-floor shot! As you could see I could not keek-up with its speed. Later on the day I saw o.a. Red-throated Diver (Gavia stellata/Roodkeelduiker), Gannet (Sula bassana/Jan-van-Gent), Arctic Skua (Stercorarius parasiticus/Kleine Jager), Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla/Drieteenmeeuw), and Guillemot (Uria aalge/Zeekoet) around the pier.

* Canon EOS 7D with 500mm/f4 IS; ISO-400, f6.3, 1/2500s; -0.3 stop; from beanbag (in frying pan).

Orange in green

Today my wife celebrated her 48-th birthday. A good reason to take a day off. In the late afternoon I could ‘escape’ from the party for an hour. The local forest offered a few Saffron Parasols (Cystoderma amianthinum/Okergele Korrelhoed) in a bed of mos.

* Canon EOS 5D Mark II with 100mm/f2.8; ISO-400, f4.5, 1/20s; from beanbag.

Undutchable

Terschelling offers more than shore birds. This photo was taken last sunday at sunrise. The view from this high dune top on the ‘Zeereep’ was magical and quite undutchable. Enjoy! I created a panorama of 5:2 out of 2 overlapping exposures (the size of the composed image is 8425x3370 pixels!).

* Canon EOS 5D Mark II with 100mm/f2.8; ISO-200, f16, 1/50s (2x); from tripod; panorama stitch.

Tiny beach-runners

From September 30-th till October 2-nd the traditional Birdpix weekend on Terschelling was organized. A good opportunity to extend my Sanderling (Calidris alba/Drieteenstrandloper) collection. I like these funny, social, fast and tiny beach-runners. Birding-wise the absolute highlight was a Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus/Velduil) that approached the island from the sea; it flew over the beach, mobbed by gulls and crows, and landed exhausted in the very first dunes.

* Canon EOS 7D with 500mm/f4 IS; ISO-400, f7.1, 1/1600s; -0.3 stop; lens leaning on a small plastic water bottle.
* Canon EOS 7D with 500mm/f4 IS; ISO-400, f6.3, 1/1250s; idem.

Strabrechtse Heide

Moments before sunrise on the good-old “Strabrechtse Heide” (somehow I end-up here 9 out of 10 times for landscape photography; next year I definitely go for the purple flowering heath). As the night was relatively cold I expected more ground fog, but nevertheless I had a good time while being-out-in-the-field this morning.

* Canon EOS 5D Mark II with 17-40mm/f4 @ 40mm; ISO-400, f10, 1/80s; hand held.

Fishing tactics: Solitary or communal?

Last Saturday we had a sunny and warm day (one of the first this summer). But ... for the early birds, the day started grey with thick fog. An impression: Communal fishing of Cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo/Aalscholver) and a lonely Great White Heron (Egretta alba/Grote Zilverreiger) on “Het Beuven, Strabrechtse Heide” around 7h00 AM.

* Canon EOS 7D with 500mm/f4 IS and 1.4x; ISO-400, f5.6, 1/160s; +0.3 stop; from tripod.
* Canon EOS 7D with 500mm/f4 IS and 1.4x; ISO-400, f6.3, 1/1250s; +0.3 stop; idem.

Surrounded by curious cows

Last weeks I spent many hour’s lying on the ground covered with a camouflage cloth hoping for close encounters with Snipes (Gallinago gallinago/Watersnip). Until now no success. But today I was rewarded with this beautiful Shoveler (Anas clypeata/Slobeend).
I suspect that it is a juvenile bird, because the feathers are very fresh.
When I wanted to get up and go home I found myself surrounded by grazing cows. When they noticed something strange that was raising in the bog, they even ran towards me and surrounded me, curious as they are. A serious drawback of this location.

* Canon EOS 7D with 500mm/f4 IS and 1.4x; ISO-400, f6.3, 1/1000s; from bean bag.