The early seventies gave us ‘Monty Python’s Flying Circus’. Who doesn’t know the ‘Dead Parrot Sketch‘? Anyway. Last week gave me a flying circus as well. A Circus cyaneus to be more precise, also known […]
Tag Archives: Birding The Netherlands
28 YEARS LATER
On October 4th, 1992 I couldn’t take my eyes of the television screen. It was broadcasting live footage from a burning high-rise apartment building in Amsterdam, into which – earlier that evening – a Boeing […]
Black Hole Owl
Looking at these images may give the impression that this Tawny Owl is as easy to photograph as the one I recently wrote about. Well, that couldn’t be less far from the truth, unfortunately. First […]
Brown Eyed Girl
“Standing in the sunlight laughing Hide behind a rainbow’s wall Slipping and a-sliding All along the waterfall With you, my brown-eyed girl You, my brown-eyed girl” Van Morrison 1967 Some weeks ago, I went with […]
Diamonds and Pearls
“If I gave you diamonds and pearls, would you be a happy boy or a girl” (Prince, 1991). Of course, but an Arctic Loon will do as well (in Dutch the bird is called, translated, […]
Who let the dogs out?
The beaches along our shoreline have never been very quiet, due to the proximity of towns and cities. However, over the last years, it has grown even more busy with people, dogs, horses and bikes. […]
Holland’s most visited
Last Sunday, I teamed up with a friend to see if we could make some nice shots of a Dipper. To cut a long story short: we couldn’t (but more important: we did have a […]
Big Brother
Recently, I wrote about the European Goldcrest , the smallest bird we have around here. It does have a “Big Brother’ though: the Firecrest. Well, it’s only just a tiny bit bigger, but the bird is […]
Gavia Immer
This morning, I ventured out to see if I could find a Common Loon. I did find the bird pretty quickly, but only was able to make a few shots that I liked enough to […]
Males with Tails
Online retailers can tell you a lot about the long-tail. But, birders can get excited about long tails as well, but only when in birds like ‘Pin-tailed Whydah’ or ‘Long-tailed Ducks’. And, more specifically, when it’s […]
Bécasseau variable
A former breeding species, Dunlins now only visit our country as migrants, or to spend the winter. Still quite some birds though, estimated numbers are somewhere between 200.000 and 400.000 birds annualy. Best place to […]
Snowy B
Last week, we had friends for dinner. In the normal way that is, not ‘Hannibal Lecter style‘. Somewhere during the conversation they mentioned, a propos, that next to their house, they had seen a rather […]