PeterHG's fifth attempt

[PeterHG]

In order to reach my 350 this year I have to resort to EBC photos, too. Perhaps not as good as shown by the master (I still have a lot to learn in that respect), but I'm very happy with this result anyway. I have made several attempts to get a decent shot of these beautiful reed birds, but they were to quick for me. This is all I managed.

 

346. Bearded Reedling. Flevoland, May.

 

Edited December 29, 2020 by PeterHG

[PeterHG]

347. Nuthatch. Leusden, December. I only managed to get a shot two days ago, though I have seen them often enough.

 

[PeterHG]

348. Mandarin Duck. Amersfoort, December. Quite unexpectedly, I found a female in our local lake. The first time in quite a few years I've seen one.

 

[PeterHG]

349. Whooper Swan, Flevoland, December. About 2000 of them spend the winter in our country and I went to one of the places with a fair chance to see them. I was in luck and two of them were even closer than they usually are.

 

[PeterHG]

This left one more bird to reach 350. Last night my son and his girlfriend came over for a quick visit (yes, at a respectable distance.....) and I told him about this thread. Although he never picked up birding as a hobby, he is still quite interested and he firmly stated that I should really try to find the one extra bird I needed. He even made suggestions and I promised him I would try and find a Rook today. That should be relatively easy to find if I did not mind a short drive. I couldn't let him down, so off I went in search of the magic number. Not as easy as I thought, but I did find one. A black bird against a grey sky does not make for a good photo, especially when I had to overexpose a lot to get some detail in the feathers, but, as @Dave Williamshas shown us before there is a new sky replacement tool in Photoshop. As we are all hoping for bluer skies next year I thought it fitting to do a little adaptation 

 

350. Rook. Barneveld, December

 

The original

 

And the one for a brighter future...

 

 

[Tdgraves]

Funnily enough @PeterHGI also need a rook for this year, but I haven't seen any for ages....

[TonyQ]

Well done on reaching 350 Peter, a great achievement!

[Peter Connan]

Congratulations on a magnificent total Peter!

[Galana]

Congratulations on 350. 100s of Rooks around here at the moment. I would have been willing to do a trade.

[shazdwn]

Congratulations Peter, a very impressive haul indeed

[xelas]

Congratulations on finding a Rook on a clear blue sky, @PeterHG! It surely is showing us what 2021 will looked like. And congrats on reaching #350!

[Kitsafari]

Congrats on the 350th - an excellent effort in a dreadful year! 

[PeterHG]

Thank you @Tdgraves, @TonyQ, @Peter Connan, @Galana, @shazdwn, @xelas, @Kitsafari!

 

I saw some beautiful graphs , shown by @Galanaand @Tdgraveswith an overview of their scores in recent year and as (again) I had nothing better to do, I decided to create one for myself. The nice thing about it is that it made clear to me that the past dreadful year had left me with a record score for the home country. I hadn't realized that and adds just a little different perspective to the limitations of 2020 

 

Edited January 2, 2021 by PeterHG
Adapted the legend of the graph

[pedro maia]

Congrats on 350 Peter, a bog number for this year.

 

By the way, you should fix the legend on your graphic .

[PeterHG]

8 hours ago, pedro maia said:

you should fix the legend on your graphic 

Ah thank you, @pedro maia! I must have unconsciously tried to get the home score a little closer to yours..... Having said that, though, I should try and keep a truer score of the Netherlands next year. I did not include the ones I had already seen and posted for South Africa, so the real count was closer to 170. Well, more good intentions for 2021 

 

Edited January 2, 2021 by PeterHG

[michael-ibk]

The graphs seem to be all the rage this year! Well done on getting to #350 Peter, a good number to end this year. Love the Bearded Reedling, quite an artsy shot! And love the Whooper, very special birds here, and with Germany closed off I fear I will miss them in 2021.

 

Hope to see you again in the BY21?

[Zim Girl]

Great total to finish on Peter, and good home country score too!