Early Bird gets the Worm

Last year I paid my very first visit to the Hallerbos in Belgium. It was an overwhelming experience. So much beauty and so many photographic opportunities, but it is very hard to extract something nice out of the chaos that a deciduous forest usually presents. Back then, we were lucky to have a dense layer of fog, which hid a large part of the chaos from view. But still, I had a hard time taking good photographs. I remember returning home with many gigs of images, only to throw away almost all of them. But: the few keepers were successful in two contest and yielded an article in a magazine.


Last Friday, I went back. Getting up before 4am is never easy, but the reward is there once you arrive in the fairytale forest and are greeted by the intensely colored flower carpet. This time, we had a sunny day, which meant the light got way too harsh after about 11am. So only a limited timeframe to get the shots I wanted. Without fog partly 'cleaning' the forest, it was much harder still to create good photographs. The number of keepers therefore is even lower than last year. But again I enjoyed every minute of it. Wouter and Dik, thanks for the company on a wonderful day.

Hallerbos at dawn; Canon 1D Mark III w. 500/4 IS; 1/30s at F4 and ISO200; tripod.

Little Devil

This weekend featured two wonderful mornings with beautiful sunrise and dense groundfog. Despite this ideal weather for landscape photography, I had other plans and with pain in my photographic heart, had to ignore the foggy world around me.

On Friday, I visited a small but worthwile nature reserve close to home. I had not been there for a long time and had forgotten about its beauty. The Bog Myrtle (gagel in Dutch) glowed like an orange fire in the backlight of the rising sun.


Combined with the fresh greens of spring leaves and the choir of singing birds all around me, it was a wonderful experience. I photographed ducks on foggy bog waters and got some nice shots of displaying Bluethroat (the reason for visiting). It seems they behave different locally, something to remember.

On Saturday, I teamed up with three other local photographers and went to photograph Black-necked Grebes. A bit further from home than I usually go, but as these normally very wary birds are completely relaxed with human presence and great in numbers (I counted 18), it is arguably the best place in the Netherlands to photograph them. Here's one fixing its glance on a potential breakfast. Spoiler alert: it did catch the insect, the next photograph in the series shows the Grebe with the insect in the bill. With their black head, glowing red eye and yellow ear plumes, they look like little devils.

Black-necked Grebe; Canon 1D Mark III with 500/4 IS and 1.4x; 1/200s at F5.6 and ISO 400; beanbag from ground

Sing-off

Last week, I wrote about the x-factor of the Bluethroat. Well, last Friday I went back to nature's studio to listen to another live concert. It was a disappointing show and all three male contestants had to go to the sing-off because of a very meager performance. In the end, the jury (me) decided to send all three home because of a lack of effort and ambition.

In this photo, one of the wannabee-stars has just gotten onto the stage and into the spotlight. He turned out to have forgotten the lyrics.


On a more serious note: I spotted two female Bluethroats, which explains the deafening silence. As I wrote last week, once the females have arrived and couples have been formed, the males don't display and sing that much anymore. Most energy goes into nest building. When they do sing, it's not as enthousiastic as in the first weeks after their arrival and they hardly ever show the yellow throat interior anymore. So it's time to look for new subjects for the next few weeks.

Mute Bluethroat; 1D Mark III w. 500/4 IS and 1.4x; 1/320s at F 5.6 and ISO800; tripod.

X-factor

If I had to name one bird that without a doubt has the X-factor, it would certainly be the Bluethroat.

When the males arrive from Africa in March, they introduce beautiful blotches of color to the budding landscape. From behind, they are a dullish brown. However, underneath those clothes is a wonderful red fan-tail, which they spread when they display. But the real magic happens when they turn around: the chest is a colorful combination of blue and red. All these good looks, and a great voice to top it off too.


When they open their bill, a splash of yellow is added to the colormix and a continuous sequence of melodic tones and rollers is sent into the world. A sure sign that spring is here to stay. One minor nit: the displaying lasts for only a week or two. After the females have arrived and couples have been formed, Bluethroats lead a very hidden life. The nestbuilding, hatching of the eggs and feeding of the chicks consumes so much time, that showing off and singing is no longer part of the daily routine.

Bluethroat displaying; Canon 1D Mark III w. 500/4 IS and 2.0x; 1/320s at F10 and ISO800; tripod.