Peter's third attempt

[PeterHG]

A beautiful sunny day, so the perfect time to do something about my BY count. I have noticed that some of us are into the 500s, but I don't give up until the 31st of december, there's always hope . And nothing much beats a nice birding day in the October warmth anyway! We went to the province of Zeeland which, with its coastal dams and wetlands is usually good for some nice species. The telescope came in handy, as many of the targets were fairly distant, but we did manage to grab some photos, too.

 

306. Eurasian Rock Pipit. Zeeland, October. A fairly common visitor along the coast, but mostly pretty shy.

 

[PeterHG]

307. Greater Black-backed Gull. Zeeland, October. Greatly outnumbered by its Lesser cousin, but you can usually pick up a few in this area. Very distant, though, so quite a crop. Still the give-away colour of the legs is visible.

 

 

 

[PeterHG]

308. Eurasian Curlew. Zeeland, October. No shortage of Curlews over there......

 

 

 

[PeterHG]

309. Water Rail. October, Zeeland. A nice find. Skulking in the reeds, so almost impossible to photograph. 

 

[PeterHG]

And some of the others, already in the count.

 

Eurasian Spoonbill

 

Little Egret

 

 

Grey Plover. Clearly showing the black patches at the base of the underwings, setting it apart from the Golden Plover.

 

[PeterHG]

310. Eurasian Collared Dove. Amersfoort, October. Originally from eastern Europe (they are called: Turkish Turtle Dove here) they settled in our country around 1950. Although numbers are declining still a common resident.

 

[PeterHG]

311. Northern Lapwing, Arkemheen, October. So common in the meadows in this area that I usually don't bother to take a photo. Unless, of course, one needs the numbers for this thread.

 

[PeterHG]

312. Carrion Crow. Arkemheen, October. The same goes for this one.

 

[PeterHG]

The last few photos were taken on a bicycle ride around the meadows this morning (well, electric bike to be honest). I was amazed how close I could still get to the crows, storks, lapwings and this beautiful Northern Wheatear. I mostly use the car as a mobile hide here, but this seems to work, too. They probably realize this old guy is quite harmless...

 

Edited October 7, 2018 by PeterHG

[Galana]

3 hours ago, PeterHG said:

Unless, of course, one needs the numbers for this thread.

Case proved. This game certainly gets us out and about and includes em all.

I assume you stop pedalling when using the camera!

[michael-ibk]

Beautiful additions, especially like the Grey Plover (a rare migrant here) and the Curlew. The Coolared Dove is named Turkish Dove in German btw.

[Zim Girl]

Lovely set of new birds, really like the Wheatear.

[PeterHG]

Another trip to Zeeland, this time with my wife. Again a sunny day with temperatures totally unfit for October. We didn't complain though and just put up with the heat. The dam between two of the islands (created as part of the Deltaplan after the 1953 floods, killing some 1800 people in the province of Zeeland) often offers some good sightings, though a little later in the year is better. There were over a hundred Red-breasted Merganser present, close enough for good scope views, but way to far for photography. I think you'll have to take my word for this one...;)

 

313. Red-breasted Merganser. Zeeland, October

 

 

Edited October 13, 2018 by PeterHG

[PeterHG]

314. Barnacle Goose, Zeeland, October. Present in large numbers.

 

 

[PeterHG]

315. Blue Tit. Zeeland, October. On migration, like quite a few others that day. For most of its flight curve the wings are closed so, even if you manage to grab an in-flight shot of this tiny bird, you mostly end up with this uninteresting torpedo look. But hey, when you need the numbers....

 

[PeterHG]

316. Spotted Redshank. Zeeland, October. We only saw a few, but that was nice enough. Constantly on the move, looking for food and occasionally I managed to catch the catch.

 

[PeterHG]

On the island of Schouwen-Duiveland we came across a mixed flock of finches. They were feeding on sunflower seeds. In order to get to them they had to hover like oversized hummingbirds as the spent flowers were hanging down. This offered some nice photography options.

317. Common Chaffinch. Zeeland, October

 

 

 

[PeterHG]

Among the Chaffinches we also found one or two Bramblings. My wife took this one, from her side of the car. She recently bought herself a new Olympus OMD-EM10, to replace her old Sony DSLR and I gave her a 75-300 lens for her 60th birthday. As the Olympus is a four-thirds sensor camera, this equals a reach of 600mm on a full-frame camera.  This means that she'll also be able to go for birds on our trip, which she really likes. And a joint photography effort is a bonus: I would never have been able to get this one from my side. It is not as sharp as she would have liked, probably due to the fact that even for her it was a difficult angle. But we got it and I have seen other razor-sharp images from her camera on this trip. A new photography world is opening up for her and that is great!

 

318. Brambling. Zeeland, October.

 

[PeterHG]

319. Greenfinch. Zeeland, October. Also present in the sunflower seed gang.

 

[Galana]

Well done with the Red-breasted Mergansers. Not Zeeland but E B C Land!

Some lovely captures there are praise due to the lady too. Nice Brambling.

[TonyQ]

Lovely photos to add to your total

[xelas]

16 hours ago, PeterHG said:

She recently bought herself a new Olympus OMD-EM10, to replace her old Sony DSLR and I gave her a 75-300 lens for her 60th birthday. As the Olympus is a four-thirds sensor camera, this equals a reach of 600mm on a full-frame camera.

I will folow those photos with great interest as mirrorless is finaly found its way into Nikon world, and any weight savings started to become an important factor ! 

[PeterHG]

320. Whimbrel. Zeeland, October. Distant, but still recognizable.

 

[PeterHG]

Went for a drive and a walk in the nearby meadows. Got a few flight shots and just now realized they were species I had not included in the BY thread. So common that it gets overlooked...

 

321. Mallard. Arkemheen, October.

 

[PeterHG]

322. Common Blackbird. Arkemheen, October. I had never managed a flight shot of this one before. They usually have a short flight, staying low and diving for cover instantly.   This one stayed out in the open for a little longer, probably because of the strong wind