Four Minutes

The Harriers appear to have switched hunting grounds and are not seen that often anymore. So I decided to try and photograph the local Buzzard. We have baited it with roadkills for three weeks and it is regularly spotted feasting on the meat.

On Friday, I spent several hours with only a Jay landing on the perch. I could hear the Buzzard though and could even see it through small slits in the canvas. It sat around all day long, without ever coming down for food. Buzzards are never in a hurry and can test your patience to the maximum.


Very frustrating, the more so when the landowner called me to say that the Buzzard was on the bait at the time I was in the car on my way home. It seemed this particular Buzzard favours dinner over breakfast and only shows up later in the day. So another try on Saturday. I figured that if I brought enough food and something to read, the Buzzard would get bored and hungry before I did. I went into the hide before sunrise and waited. And waited. After four hours, suddenly a very large brown bird filled the viewfinder. I took a few shots, which did not bother the Buzzard at all. It was however startled by something out of sight on my far left and took off after only four minutes. I decided to stay and wait for the late afternoon. That almost paid off, almost...After another five hours, an even larger brown bird with a very white belly landed on the bait. Another Buzzard! Within 10 seconds, the resident Buzzard came down as well. The interaction that followed could have yielded some very nice shots. Unfortunately, they decided to fight somewhere else and flew off. At that time, the light had gotten too dim to take any decent images, so I went home. All in all, I spent 19 hours in the hide for a mere four minutes of Buzzard time and only 8 images. Patience really is a virtue.

Common Buzzard on prey; Canon 1D Mark III w. 500/4 IS; 1/100s at F4 and ISO400; Tripod from hide.

Well Worth the Wait

A friend of mine has his enormous 'backyard' turned into a private nature reserve. Last year, he decided to create two grainfields, which were not to be harvested. The idea was that the fileds would attract large numbers of mice, finches, partridges and other animals. Well. the plan worked out. This winter, lots of Greenfinches, Chaffinches and Yellowhammers and a few Reedbuntings and other birds forage there. In turn, these birds attract raptors. The local Sparrowhawk looks very happy with the 'corn of plenty' and shows one spectacular dive after another.

What I like even better, is that wintering Hen Harriers are attracted by the fields too. Two males and a female regularly patrol the fields in their specific slow but gracious way. Last weekend, I spent two full days in the car, which I had parked at the end of a strip of grainfield. The windows were camouflaged and all I had to do was wait for one of the birds to show up and fly right into the lens. Easier said than done...

Because there are two grainfields and I could only overlook one, the birds would be on the wrong field for 50% of the time and sometimes they just stayed too far away. All in all, I spent over 10 hours, with only few opportunities for photography. On both days, the male was most cooperative and flew right into the lens. Hopefully, next time he'll perform his act a bit earlier on the day when the light is not that dim, but I must say I am very pleased with the first results, especially given the very high ISO rating I had to use.

Male Hen Harrier hunting; Canon 1D Mark III w. 500/4 IS and 1.4x; 1/320s af F6.3 and ISO 1250; beanbag from car.

Empty Restaurant

Back in the Dutch winter, it was time to have a look at how the feathered friends in the forest were coping with the cold and snow. Well, probably not too bad, as it was very, very quiet at the feeding station. Somehow the birds did not need the extra treats and found anough food elsewhere.

Only the Nuthatch couple, a handicapped Great Tit and a Robin were kind enough to pay me a visit and give my index finger a bit of exercise. No Crested, Coal, Willow or Blue Tits anywhere near.


For this particular image, I gathered some snow from the forest floor (we have not had much snow in this area) and covered a small oak branch on the ground. I made a small indent in the snow and placed sunflower seeds in there. That way, the birds would sit on top of the little snowy hill and the seeds would stay out of view. After a few succesful landings, the top of the hill had become snowless, perfect for the Nuthatch to use as a vantage point. The most difficult part of taking a good photograph, was to make sure the Nuthatch had no seeds in the bill. Very hard, as they tend to gather many seeds and digest them elsewhere, only to be back after a minute or so to repeat the process. In this image, the Nuthatch took a frosty bite, it is snow that you can see in the bill.

Nuthatch in Snow; Canon 1D Mark III with 500/4; 1/300s at F5 and ISO400; Gitzo tripod from hide.

Sweet Memories

First of all, a happy and healthy new year to everyone.

Back home in the beautiful cold Dutch winter. I am really looking forward to a weekend of photography in the snow and cold. But at the same time, the sweet memories from the recent honeymoon to Patagonia travel through my mind. Going through the GB's of images I created in the far south of Argentina and Chile is a good way of reliving this fascinating trip.
The last post of last year was an image of me photographing the sunset over the Beagle Channel.


It turned out to be both the first and the last sunset we go to witness. The winds were so fierce that the weather was ever-changing and every day at around 7pm, the clouds would come in to spoil an otherwise perfect sunset at a perfect location. During the boattrip on the Beagle Channel at the end of the day, we saw many cormorants of three different species. Lots of them were on their way to the colony rock or fishing and bathing on the open sea. This provided various opportunities to portrait them in the beautiful Tierra del Fuego landscape. Believe me, I did not miss the long lens for a moment. Where that unbelievable ray of light came from? No idea, but sure I was glad it was there!

King Cormorant on Beagle Channel; Canon 1D Mark III w. 70-200/4; 1/4000s at F5.6 and ISO200; handheld from boat.