PeterHG's eighth BY

[PeterHG]

My 8th year already. I must confess I hesitated a little before starting this thread again, but I decided to give it another go. It's not so much the score that caused me to wonder whether I would participate again. I know it is the purpose of the thread, but for me (as for many others, I think) looking at bird photos from all over the world, sharing my own, giving and receiving useful or blatantly unuseful but very entertaining comments, is the real attraction. I wouldn't want to miss those and/ or the opportunity to actually meet some of the others here and do a little birding together. Every single time I was fortunate enough to do that has been a real pleasure. So here we go again. I don't know what the year will bring, but I do know I've already booked a trip to Suriname in february. A country I haven't visited before. We got the idea in the beginning of December and asked a travel agency to put together a trip with visits to some hotspots and guiding by a local expert. Their proposal turned out to be much more expensive than we had expected and was also a little too primitive for my advancing age..;). A sad event later that month caused us to abandon the whole idea. But last week, on the spur of the moment, we booked a flight and found some accommodation. We will try and do some birding by ourselves, which will undoubtedly result in fewer species, but I expect us to have a good time anyway.

Well that was a rather long introduction, so let's get started for real.

 

01 /NL 01.  Goldeneye. Arkemheen, January. They are still here in fair numbers and sometimes one gets close enough for a photo.

 

02 /NL 02. Smew . Arkemheen, January.

female:

and male:

 

03 /NL 03. Goosander. Arkemheen, January. To save space I put male and female in one shot here

 

Edited January 11, 2023 by PeterHG

[Peter Connan]

Glad to see you back Peter!

 

Lovely shots.

[BRACQUENE]

A long introduction perhaps Peter but one that for me summarizes what’s the purpose of my own participation: so glad you’re back on board and have a marvelous trip to 🇸🇷 next month !

 

[Galana]

A welcome back from me too. Love the Duo on one excellent BIF shot and deeply envious of the Smew which would be almost a lifer for me. (Almost being because of alone female many years ago.)

[TonyQ]

A great start, and beautiful Smew photos 

[Zim Girl]

The Smew pictures are lovely, also a bird I have never seen.

[PeterHG]

Thank you @Peter Connan @BRACQUENE @Galana @TonyQ @Zim Girl

 

04 / NL 04. Eurasian Coot. Arkemheen, January. Especially in winter there are thousands of them in the open water between the mainland and the reclaimed polders. 

 

05 / NL 05. Greater Scaup. Arkemheen, January. The first year male that I photographed in December is still present. When the sun came out you could just see that its head, mostly looking black from a distance, in fact has a greenish.

 

06 / NL 06. Common Kestrel. Arkemheen, January. It is always an amazing sight to see a kestrel hovering. Every part of its body is in constant motion except for its head, which remains rock steady. By lowering the shutter speed to 1/50 I tried to show this in the photo. The next two were taken at a much higher shutter speed.

 

 

[TonyQ]

A great sequence of the Kestrel. I really like the one at the slow shutter speed. (I will have to try that)

[Galana]

Great shot of the Kestrel. I don't have to try that. All my BIF are on auto blur.

[Peter Connan]

Stunning shot of the kestrel! Getting anything at all sharp at 1/50th is very impressive!

[lmSA84]

Love the first shot of the kestrel 

[xelas]

I am glad that you have decided to continue with BY, Peter. Otherwise I would miss your BIF shots. 

[PeterHG]

Thank you @TonyQ @Galana  @Peter Connan @lmSA84 @xelas!

 

07 /NL 07. European Robin. Flevoland, January. 

 

08 /NL 08. Goldcrest. Flevoland, January. I would have like a photo showing the crown a little better, but last year I didn't get a hot of this tiny bird at all, so I'm happy with this one.

 

09 / NL 09. Mute Swan. Flevoland, January. I visited the area in search for the Whooper Swan, but I didn't find any. I settled for its non-verbal cousin.

 

10 /NL 10. European Goldfinch. Amersfoort, January. Our tiny garden attracts mainly sparrows an the occasional blue tit, but yesterday wto unexpected visitors landed on the remains of the Rudbeckia. I very slowly opened the back door a few inches and managed a few shots and even some video.

 

 

[Kitsafari]

wowzer on the stunning kestrel in flight shots! i've never seen a smew before but what a beautiful male bird that is. as always, looking forward to more of your amazing shots. 

[michael-ibk]

Awesome Kestrel photos Peter. We will be close in February - just "next door" to Suriname in Guyana.

[PeterHG]

Thank you @Kitsafariand @michael-ibk!

17 hours ago, michael-ibk said:

We will be close in February - just "next door" to Suriname in Guyana.

That is quite a coincidence! I trust your trip is more of a dedicated birding trip than ours will be, but we are looking forward to reconnecting with some Colombian and Costa Rican birds and hopefully I'll add a number of new ones to the list, too. 

 

Yesterday we made a day trip to the southwestern delta area of Zeeland. The weather forecast promised some sun after a string of grey days, but did not deliver. Still we had a nice day. It is not an area to return from with great photos (as most of the birds are seen at some distance), but  it often produces a good number of species (60 yesterday) and always the possibility of some special ones. Among the birds seen were 9 species of geese. I don't think I've ever seen so many before. The majority of them were the 'common' geeses and I do hope I'll get some better shots to share later on. But that does not necessarily apply to the one I'll post now.

 

11 / NL 11. Cackling Goose. Zeeland, January. Does not belong here, of course, but we have a 'wild' population of a few hundred.

 

12 / NL 12. Tundra Bean Goose. Zeeland, January. Not rare at all with some 250.000 wintering birds, but we very rarely get them where I live, so it was nice to find some groups over there.

 

 

13 / NL 13. Red-breasted Goose. Zeeland, January. A rarity and I had not seen one for several years. The most beautiful goose we have, I think.

 

[PeterHG]

14 / NL 14. Cattle Egret. Zeeland, January. Another unexpected find. Still rare in the Netherlands, though the number of sightings is increasing.

 

15 / NL 15. Purple Sandpiper. Zeeland, January. The 'Brouwersdam' and the pier at IJmuiden may be the two most reliable spots to see this wader.

 

16 / NL 16. Greater Black-backed Gull. Zeeland, January. Although not as common as its lesser cousin, it is not rare and also for this species the Brouwersdam is a good place to find it.

 

17 / NL 17. Herring Gull. Zeeland, January.  Common and widespread.

 

18 / NL 18. Whooper Swan. Zeeland, January

19 / NL 19. Bewicks Swan, Zeeland, January

At the location I found the Tundra Bean Goose, there was also a fairly large group of Whooper Swans with some Bewick's among them. 

 

[Galana]

Magnificent collection. The Bean Geese got my attention but the Red-breasted was a real find. And such a lovely sighting of it too.

[Peter Connan]

That is indeed a beautiful goose!

[PeterHG]

I had heard an owl had been sighted again in our local park, only a ten minutes' walk from my house. I had seen it there before but not for a number of years. My first attempt failed, but this morning the owl was enjoying a few rays of sunshine.

 

20 / NL 20. Tawny Owl. Amersfoort, January

Edited January 26, 2023 by PeterHG

[Peter Connan]

Beautifil!

[Galana]

Epic Owl shot. Beautiful colouring too.

[BRACQUENE]

Fantastic picture of the owl Peter

[PeterHG]

Thank you @Peter Connan @Galana @BRACQUENE! 

 

A little walk along the water's edge of the nearby wetland area this morning. It started cold but sunny. Soon the clouds gathered again and it was the ususal grey day. Still a few additions.

 

21 / NL 21. Common (Mew) Gull. Arkemheen, January

 

22 / NL 22. Caspian Gull. Arkemheen, January. Still an uncommon bird in our country, but increasing in numbers and this is a pretty reliable spot to see one.

 

23 / NL 23. Greater White-fronted Goose. Arkemheen, January. Still present in large numbers.

 

 

[Zim Girl]

Beautiful picture of the Tawny owl.