PeterHG's Big Year-4th time

[Dave Williams]

A consistently high quality Peter. I like your set up!

[PeterHG]

344. Green Sandpiper. Wijhe, September. New ones are few and far between, but a visit to a hide in the afternoon produced this one. 

 

[Galana]

I am so glad I changed my call on my thread. Nice photo.

 

[PeterHG]

I went to the same hide this morning, situated on a tributary of the IJssel river. This can be a good spot in September for Osprey or White-tailed Eagle, but neither showed. I did see a few others, though like the 

345. Grey Wagtail. Wijhe, September

 

And a Common Sandpiper. While looking through my BY spreadsheet, I realized that I had not posted this one yet, but I also noticed that I had posted the Costa Rican Solitary Sandpiper twice ( well, it was a lifer...;)). So I won't count this Sandpiper....

As there was also a Green Sandpiper present, it was a  nice opportunity to view the differences. I had not realized the Green Sandpiper was so much bigger.

 

346. Common Greenshank. Also present for a short while. Taken with the 300mm and 2.0 teleconverter.

[PeterHG]

In a desperate quest for another BY tick  I visited a reserve I had never been to before. When  I got out of the car this beautiful raptor came soaring over and I managed to take some shots. That turned out to be the last interesting bird of the walk, but who's complaining. This is a juvenile. It could be confused with the similar, though much smaller Sparrowhawk, but the vertical streaking and the rather wide 'hips' point to the Goshawk. 

348. Northern Goshawk. Waverhoek, Sept 

 

[michael-ibk]

A fantastic Goshawk sighting Peter. I really find it quite perplexing that this bird is described as "common" in the books - I hardly ever see it, and certainly never got a photo like this one.

Edited September 21, 2019 by michael-ibk

[pedro maia]

Beautiful picture Peter.

[Dave Williams]

Cracking Goshawk! I had to travel to Spain to get a close encounter and that was at a paid for hide. Seen one once at a great distance here in North Wales.

 

[TonyQ]

A superb Goshawk!

[Galana]

Brilliant. What I would give to get the chance of a shot like that. ONly ever seen as a rapidly departing tail end that would not even rate highly as and EBC, (Even for me).

[PeterHG]

Thank you @michael-ibk, @pedro maia, @Dave Williams, @TonyQ and @Galana! I was very happy with the encounter.The Goshawk in the Netherlands is estimated at some 1900 breeding pairs. It is a pretty rare sighting, though and mostly distant. I must say I have been blessed with a few good sightings over the years, although the last one was some time ago. But on those occasions I also got good views:

 

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-xx45VD3/0/d4bcb113/XL/i-xx45VD3-XL.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-qCs5rzR/0/38fe0c4a/L/i-qCs5rzR-L.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-bpKwBPN/0/bbb24dfb/L/i-bpKwBPN-L.jpg

 

 

[michael-ibk]

Just wow! All three incredible pictures! Need to repeat: Wow!

[Kitsafari]

Cracking shot of the goshawk! And crazy good shots from your smugmug archives too! 

[Alex Rogers]

Love the goshawk, beautiful bird and amazing shot. 

[Zim Girl]

Stunning picture of a goshawk, Peter.

[Peter Connan]

Wow, what a shot!

[xelas]

Directly overhead, and into a blue sky! Amazing outcome, I will be happy to learn from you!

Edited September 24, 2019 by xelas

[PeterHG]

Thanks all for the kind words!

1 hour ago, xelas said:

Directly overhead, and into a blue sky! Amazing outcome, I will be happy to learn from you!

Well, the main ingredient was undoubtedly luck here. I do hope we'll have some of that when you are over here, @xelas

[PeterHG]

A little outing today provided yet another addition for the thread. And one I had been trying to photograph before.

349. Bearded Reedling. Flevoland, Oct. Certainly not rare and heard on quite a few occasions, when visiting the area, but they can be quite elusive in the reedbeds..

 

 

The hour in the hide also gave me quite good views again of the White-tailed Eagle. Already in the count, of course, but they remain a magnificent spectacle. I hope you don't mind a few more shots.

They keep their distance, but the converter came in handy. This one had caught something and was plucking away at it. As the prey remained submerged I only caught a few glimpses, but I think it was a greylag goose

 

 

 

Four juveniles were present in the vicinity of the hide. I had never seen that many before.

[Peter Connan]

Lovely shots of the Reedling and the Eagles!

[Galana]

Great Beardy.

[Zim Girl]

Stunning Bearded Tit picture.

[xelas]

I hope you have remembered the exact spot at Flevoland, that Panurus biarmicusis just insanely photogenic!

[Alex Rogers]

Love the bearded tit, and you can post as many eagle shots as you like, awesome birds. 

[PeterHG]

350. Eurasian Magpie. Amersfoort, October. I am the Walnut... A conspicuous bird, that has completely adapted to city life. Decades ago this was a shy forest bird, but now they have taken over our gardens and parks. Quite a few people consider them a pest now and claim there are far too many. In fact the number of Magpies in our country has halved since the eighties, but we now see  them everywhere around our houses. This is probably why I had not remembered to take a picture of one for the BY count.....;)