Top gear

What is this skillful Hawk Owl (Surnia ulula/Sperweruil) hunter fast, the speed at which they fly is amazing. After hard work I managed to get a few decent shots during this mid-week. Here are 3 of them. The first 2 are more or less classic ones; perching in a frost covered pine, and hunting above the snow. The third photo, taken with a 100mm lens, shows the bird in action in its typical ‘clearing-in-boreal-forest’ territory. While photographing Hawk Owls, we often heard migrating Pine Grosbeaks (Pinicola enucleator/Haakbek), a first spring sign here.

* Canon EOS 7D with 500mm/f4 IS; ISO-200, f7.1, 1/400s, +0.3 stop; from tripod.
* Canon EOS 7D with 70-200mm/f2.8 IS II @ 170mm; ISO-400, f5.6, 1/3200s, +1 stop; hand held.
* Canon EOS 7D with 100mm/f2.8; ISO-400, f5.6, 1/2500s, +0.3 stop; hand held.

White, whiter, whitest

I am very happy with today’s photo session of the Willow Grouse (Lagopus lagopus/Moerassneeuwhoen). I like the all-white winter plumage with that small fierce-red eyebrow patch of the ♂. How to find a Willow Grouse in a snow white landscape? Look for something that is whiter than white! It is that easy :-).

* Canon EOS 5D Mark II with 70-200mm/f2.8 IS II @ 150mm; ISO-400, f6.3, 1/1000s, +1 stop; hand held.
* Canon EOS 5D Mark II with 70-200mm/f2.8 IS II @ 90mm; ISO-400, f7.1, 1/640s, +1 stop; hand held.

Oulanka National Park

From 4 to 9 March I stayed at the research station of Oulanka National Park in the north of Finland (Kuusamo region). This beautiful taiga forest interspersed with frozen lakes (ice thickness over 60 cm!) and wild rivers is situated just south of the Arctic Circle not far from Russia. It is the coldest place in Finland; this week early morning temperatures dropped to -25⁰C (this winter it was even below-40⁰C). I was the guest of Olli Lamminsalo, a knowledgeable guide and very friendly person.
Life is not so ‘polished’ here, rather plain and basic; that is why I like it so much!

* Canon EOS 5D Mark II with 70-200mm/f2.8 IS II @ 200mm; ISO-250, f9, 1/125s; -0.3 stop; hand held.

Dutch arctic

Today I went to the little town Stavoren (± 1000 inhabitants; it was granted city rights back in 1118, making it the oldest city in Friesland!) to enjoy the drifting ice on the “IJsselmeer” lake. After a cold period, the ice shelf breaks up and fueled by the western winds it piles up on the eastern shores of this lake. I missed this impressive end-of-winter phenomenon the last 2 years, so I was very eager to go!

* Canon EOS 5D Mark II with 17-40mm/f4 @ 17mm; ISO-200, f16, 1/10s; +0.7 stop; polarization filter; from tripod.
* Canon EOS 5D Mark II with 17-40mm/f4 @ 26mm; ISO-200, f16, 1/2s; +1 stop; polarization filter and 2 stop ND gradient filter; from tripod.

Peekaboo

The last 2 weeks most open water has been turned into ice. Tomorrow thaw will set in according the weather prediction (but last night temperature still went below -10⁰C!). A good day to check-out ditches with some running water for Jack Snipe (Lymnocryptes minimus/Bokje). In one small ditch we (Jan Timmermans, Jarno van Bussel, and myself) found 6 birds. This one was very approachable, trusting its camouflage. Peekaboo!

* Canon EOS 7D with 100mm/f2.8; ISO-400, f4, 1/320s, -0.7 step, hand held.

The next morning

Snow yesterday evening and temperatures that have plummeted tonight to a historic low value of -19⁰C. These are the ingredients for a beautiful photogenic world. I chose to go for the sunrise to the nearby lowland stream “Kleine Dommel”. Here is one of the many pictures I made. When you compare this to the post of January 2009 you can see that this time the river is almost frozen.
Later that day I had parental duties. Me daughter Evelien phoned me; she got stuck at railway station “Utrecht CS” together with more than 1000 travellers. No trains arrived or got out, so I decided to pick her up. That is also part of the Dutch winter!

* Canon EOS 5D Mark II with 17-40mm/f4 @ 32mm; ISO-800, f13, 1/60s, +0.7 stop; polarization filter, hand held.

Winter has arrived

Finally winter has come! The last couple of days the temperature stayed below zero at daytime. Water turns into ice. And today we had some serious snow, with the usual side effects in The Netherlands, i.e. non-functional trains and huge traffic jams.
However, before the snowfall started I went with Jos van de Kerkhof, Theo van de Mortel and Wilco Minten to Zeeland to photograph shore birds. Here are 2 highlights: Dunlin (Calidris alpina/Bonte Strandloper) and Spotted Redshank (Tringa erythropus/Zwarte Ruiter) on ice.

* Canon EOS 7D with 500mm/f4 IS and 1.4x; ISO-400, f5.6, 1/320s, +0.7 stop; from beanbag.
* Canon EOS 7D with 500mm/f4 IS; ISO-400, f5.6, 1/500s, +0.7 stop; from beanbag.

I can’t withhold today’s sunset. So I added a third picture with snowy dikes and snow showers moving south towards Belgium. Temperatures were dropping fast when we drove back … to be continued (see next post).

* Canon EOS 5D Mark II with 17-40mm/f4 @ 17mm; ISO-400, f8, 1/60s, +0.7 stop; hand held.