My Nikon has been in the oven since the day before yesterday because the humidity is simply too high and it’s still acting up – last resort! Every few hours, I turn it down to 55 degrees, rinse the buttons, dials, and contacts with isoprop, and then let it roast. Sun and wind would certainly do it better, but that would mean sitting here with the camera and making sure it doesn’t get caught in another rain shower instead of enjoying La Palma. Current status: It turns on, triggers, but I can’t adjust anything – the entire right side is dead, and the settings are now fixed: Shutter priority 1/1000 and AutoISO. You can still take photos with it, but you have to make compromises and do a lot of post-processing. The AUTO mode probably still works, but taking pictures of animals with it is a gamble.
Here’s my second attempt with the lizards – the first was shot with an iPhone zoom, and it was really painful and resulted in a mess of pixel mash, even if it might not have been noticeable on social media. This monster, a good 15 cm long, was old and experienced and just as curious about me as I was about him. Reminds me of an old bartender who looks at you askance and asks, “What do you want?”, right?
When we first landed on La Palma 16 years ago, a neighbor greeted us with, “Welcome to the island of the falcons, Falk” And he was right. This is the island of the canary kestrels. The barancos offer plenty of space for food and nesting holes, the winds are ideal for catching prey with minimal effort, and so there are falcons around every corner.
The day before yesterday, I began the hour-and-a-half descent from the summit of San Antonio to the salt flats. On the way through the black earth, I found a nesting hole with a young falcon. Shortly after, a parent came and lured it out of the hole with a caught lizard. I would have liked to have spent more time there, but I had a path to climb to meet up with the family at the lighthouse, otherwise it would have been a loooong walk home. 😉
I’d probably seen it before, but never from such close range and in such calm. Usually, one would zoom past me and do a few pirouettes over the water before disappearing again. This one landed 15 meters away and was so relaxed that I was able to get a little closer. The lighting conditions were ideal… impressive.
How glad I am to have caught these two “dancing.” I was already questioning my state of mind, as I’ve been outside a lot this past week but hardly seen any animals. Finally, another encounter:
These two green woodpeckers were so preoccupied with themselves that they didn’t realize they were courting right in the middle of the footpath/cycle path. I had a good minute with them until—of course—a cyclist followed by an inline skater came along the path.
A beautiful dance, and I’m guessing the male is the one trying to impress the female (here with a yellow patch on her back) with cloned wing beats and a big head bob. I would have liked to have watched longer, but I’m so happy I was able to witness this ceremonyeven if I would have preferred a lower angle. But that would have required me to get off my bike, and by then they would have been gone.
Sometimes you impose things on yourself that, due to a chain of circumstances, lead to a total blockage. In my case: first sorting out the old photos and making room for new ones on the hard drive. That includes the pictures from my mobile, and there has been hardly any tidiness in the last three years, which is now quite a big mess. But, I have to move on and I have already been on two smaller photo excursions, but the website is dying and I don’t have the time to deal with it. Messed up PHP versions, distributed domains and broken SSL… all a load of crap. I decided to concentrate on the important thing: taking photos!
At first it was clear and cold and I absolutely had to get out of the door. A short ride to the Schultheisweiher and back – there was nothing exciting to see and it started to drizzle slightly. As so often, the lovely encounter came just as I had given up all hope. This young kestrel lady flew past me and sat down on the right-of-way sign right next to the Mainpark, at the top of the road. I climbed up the dyke and could see how naively it perched right on the side of the road and the cars whizzed past it just a few centimeters away. Hunger makes you fearless, I guess.
Further browsing through my image database brings a lot more to light. This young swan was just as curious about me as I was about him and let me get close… last spring. Speaking of which: Dany’s Dream Collection called. They want their poster swan back! 😉
According to Wikipedia, it is difficult to distinguish from the barn tit and the great tit, but since it appeared in the forest and Google also thinks it is a marsh tit, I’ll leave it at that; ornithologists are welcome to correct me.
Small, just as nimble as you would expect from a tit, this one was very quick to stuff its beak full and whizz away like an arrow. Bon appetite…
Today the weather was really great, but everyday life didn’t give me any time to take photos. So I’m rummaging through the pictures of the year and sorting them out before the 2024 folder goes to the NAS. This cheetah from Burgers Zoo in Arnhem captures my state quite well. Since cheetahs don’t scream, he yawns, so goodnight then.
So that’s how it works! Simply crush a few nuts and spread a few oat flakes on top and place the whole thing, preferably by a large lake in the forest, and the whole flock of birds will come. Unfortunately, this feeding place on the Oberschweinsstiege is in the shade. In the depths of winter, the lighting conditions here are not particularly good. There were still a few good pictures. Unfortunately, it was too dark for the quick actions, but you can see that this is about the nut… and suddenly the English name makes sense.
And yes, birds do hug trees as you can see on the last shot. ;D
It really is a very special gift and a joy for me to have met this little guy here. It was on my agenda for a long time: a good picture of the kingfisher. It was a dream, a goal and for a long time I didn’t know how and where I could find it and capture it in pixels. Finally, it worked and it was the photographic and emotional highlight of my work to date. I would like to share this joy with you out there and wish you a peaceful, wonderful holiday, a happy new year and lots of great moments in the next year.
The first time I was in Hainhausen, I immediately spotted the kingfisher. While I was waiting for it and sitting on the Rodau, a buzzard came along with prey in its claws. It was flying so low and the river was not visible at that point that we were both really frightened when it burst through the branches just a meter in front of me. Luckily it didn’t lose its prey.
Last weekend I was looking for the kingfisher again – as you can see in the previous post – and guess who was there too.
… which translates to “ice bird” in German — Kingfisher for your englisch natives!
Perfect weather – clear, cold and lots of sunlight and all appointments cancelled. I need more forest and more sun… as much as I can get. If it’s already cold but the lakes don’t have any ice yet, wouldn’t a visit to the kingfisher be a good idea? No sooner said than done!
I stood in the wet mud for the first hour and no kingfisher came – but the buzzard from last time, which I almost collided with, did. Does he hunt here too? Perfect squared^2. Just as I decided to move on, he appeared next to me. We played cat and mouse for a good hour and a half and I chased him around the little lakes. Thanks to my lame autofocus, which has been getting it wrong a lot lately, I missed two or three wonderful opportunities. More training, Falk… others can do it too!
A few good pictures were taken, even if they aren’t action shots. Let’s see if Santa Claus has a camouflage net for me.
They are becoming a nuisance in many places and last Sunday, when I was out in Hainburg hunting kingfishers (just for the photo), there was at least one nutria in every small pond. At first we thought (Thomas was with us) that it was always the same, but the differences were quickly identified. As the first one appeared at the old beaver den and also dived right in front of it, we had to ask the internet whether we were seeing a real beaver after all. In the end, it wasn’t a black nose, the ears stick out too far and the white whiskers plus the rat tail and yellow teeth showed that it was nutrias that were up to their mischief there.
Unexpected things often happen! On Saturday I helped out in the museum again and was a bit disappointed because the weather was so nice. Yesterday it wasn’t so good, but going outside was on the agenda. Where to? Nadine remembered a nature reserve in Rodgau that we had visited in the spring – after reading an article in the Offenbach Post. Yes! That sounded good and it got even better:
Beavers have dammed the Rodau at this point, in the middle of Hainhausen, and flooded old gardens. This has created a landscape of lots of small lakes, separated by old fences remnants, drowned and fallen trees, all surrounded by mighty blackberry bushes, so that there is hardly any access to the water, unless you have wings or go swimming. As soon as we arrived I saw a kingfisher hunting and after a good hour of waiting and sneaking through the lost gardens I caught it. Finally a decent picture of the blue diamond! One thing is certain: I have to go back there as soon as time and weather permit.
Loenermark is a beautiful place. I love the Dutch heath and it is magical, especially in autumn. Yesterday evening the sun came out again after the clouds had hidden their play all day. I was too late! When I arrived at the marker, it had already disappeared behind the horizon and new clouds in the form of fog were rising from below. Fascinated and with John Carpenter’s “The Fog” theme in my head the whole time, I lost track of time. The walk back through the dark forest, without light, was “exciting”. Lazy as I am, I shot these pictures with my iPhone, only to be disappointed when I looked at them on the big screen. I should put my landscape lens back in!
Winter is approaching and autumn was quite wet and dark. When the sun comes out, all the animals like to come out again and recharge their batteries – especially the cold-blooded ones. At the restaurant, “zum Grünen See” (Green Lake), there was a whole flock of young wall lizards scurrying around under the veranda… young and relatively carefree. The adult lizard sat, well hidden, under the deck and peeped furtively at me while the kids played outside. They are considered an invasive species, as I just read… perhaps because they produce offspring so late in the year?
They actually eat almost everything you find in and around the lakes; they like mussels and “duck food”, but they often dive for plants on the bottom. They do a little jump so that they can dive under the water surface. Wonderful. But what happens when the food-seeker is already waiting above and wants to steal the prey? Yes, there is trouble. Since the chickens cannot take off vertically, they always have to walk over the water for a moment. In Germany they are called “Blässhuhn” (because of the white spot and beak – Blässe = pale) but it looks like Bless-Huhn would have suited them better. 😉
I came across the Surfsee (surf lake) through a local Facebook photo group. II have no idea why it’s called that, because I can’t imagine surfing there. All sorts of birds seemed to be there and even an eagle had appeared. Thanks to Paolo I found the lake, with no eagle, but with lots of people and quite a few animals. Among them was this great crested grebe with its begging offspring. They weren’t difficult to find, because the little one was begging loudly – it was more difficult to get a good photo of the two and I was a bit clumsy that day, which was also due to the lack of time, and scared them away. It’s been a good three weeks now and I hope I can get back to the surf lake soon – then I’ll get in touch with you, Paolo.
Well, sometimes you have to be lucky, although many professional photographers say that there is no luck when you doing pictures for a living. I think they are partly right: The more you use your camera and get to know the techniques, the better you get. It is the same with everything you learn. So you are probably more prepared and know to set the scene – hence know where you have to stand, what has to be in the picture and where composition-wise and so on… in short: know your trade! …. and than you can capture a shot that might look like you were lucky. Right, so! But do think that there is a rest of luck to be found in a good shot, as you can’t predict the weather or any circumstances outside. Lucky us, this is up to the god(s) above and so I feel lucky and happy that I won this tiny contest from my hometown Offenbach. As you might know, it is home to the Deutsche Wetterdienst (Germany weather service) that produces the national weather forecasts. We do have a so called weather park (Wetterpark), where all the aspects of weather are explained in great detail and with models. The blue hour are actually two times of the day; at sunrise and at sunset where the light turns everything I a cool blue. Here we go for sunrise in autumn, when I did my first trip to my cardio doctor. I guess the luck came in form of this mist and I ended up first place. 😀 This was shot with my iPhone, as I am not a professional photographer and as much as I try to carry around the big heavy equipment there are times when it doesn’t make sense…. or would it have made in this case. Dilemma here!
Is there anyone who likes flies; I mean, apart from Jean-Henri Fabre? They cut a fine figure as horror monsters and they also belong in stinking dog poop. Jedes Dippsche hat sah Deckelsche! – as we say here (means there is a fit for everything). Watching these animals mate is certainly the opposite of exciting, but there are some nice “portraits” to be had. Although I got quite close with my lens, the title image of this post rather looks a unsharp and due to the colortones it looks like shot with and analog DLSR in in the 70s…. somehow quit fits the topic, me thinks….
The thistles don’t just seem to be a tasty source of food for the goldfinches. If you stay close to them for a while, you’ll notice that they’re a safe haven for many insects – in my case, it was a whole bunch of grasshoppers happily courting. I only took notice when one of them fluttered to the next branch, because both in terms of color and their bizarre, spiky shapes, they blend in well with the structure of the thistles.
These small, colorful arrows that you see flashing here and there. I’ve always wondered what kind of bird it is and now I’ve found it. Also known in German as the Distelfink (relates to something like “Thristelfinch”) its bright, colorful plumage suddenly provides wonderful camouflage when it sits in the middle of a clump of thistle flowers. The strong beak is typical of finches. They use it to pluck the seeds of the prickly thistle and nibble on the kernels. You’d think they’d enjoy letting the leftovers fly into the wind.
In the Vroongronden near Renesse/Zeeland there are not only many birds and rabbits, but also a herd of wild horses. The animals are outside all year round and left to themselves. Wild yes, shy no, and so they don’t worry much about the many hikers and cyclists who pass through the area between Renesse and Hamstede Castle. I sat in the meadow for an hour and waited. Although the little ones were still sleeping at first, they all came trotting past later.
This seems to be the project behind the release into the wild. I like!
… when the gulls cry. Impressive animals and nasty predators, with beaks that would require a gun license, but I like them. They don’t give each other any favors, but they often hunt in packs. If you look at the rings around their eyes, you can see a glimpse into the past and a little bit of a dinosaur, I think.
All organisms strive to simplify their lives and are naturally found where the conditions are good for them. This is also the case with the seal and harbor seal populations around Renesse: they grow and the animals know where to find their food. When the water from the Crevelinger Mer pushes through the Bouwersdam at Spuisluis at low tide and pulls the fish back into the North Sea, they are there. They wait comfortably in front of the lock, stick their noses out of the water and enjoy the sun. Would’t it be great to be a seal?
Spuisluis is ringe by a high fence and I could not get any closer to the shoreline, so the images are partly upscaled by ai.
May I introduce: Squik Jr. The weather on Tuesday was terrible. It had been below 20 degrees at night, but during the day the thermometer shot up to 30 degrees Celcius. The Kogel is in the shade, but also right under the roof. In the evening the little one came out and hung on our awning, very exhausted. A pot of water and a piece of cold watermelon from the coolest part of our fridge and some wallnuts helped a little. Mama Squink kept watch and ran excitedly back and forth while the offspring couldn’t keep its eyes open. I hope it survives this summer.
… and other dragonflies. It’s that time of year again when the dragonflies are buzzing and the lakes and water extinguishers are buzzing around. Did you know that this is actually the final stage of their existence. The larvae sometimes spend up to 5 years in the water, hunting and growing, until they pupate and then buzz around as dragonflies for a summer, lay eggs and then die. Beautiful animals. This big blue arrow was quite “shy” at first and I had to stand quietly in front of a stalk in the lake for a good 15 minutes until he came back to me. The mosquito bites on my body still itch today.
It was a bit of a shock when my beloved little pine tree on the balcony suddenly had no branches or leaves; as if someone had simply cut it bare and left only the trunk and a few small shoots at the top. At the time I first blamed Nadine and when she denied it, it was my mother’s turn until a few days later I caught a squirrel biting off the branches right at the trunk and carrying them away. Now our birch tree had to suffer and in return we have half a kogel right above our awning and a cheeky young squirrel that took over the balcony yesterday morning. They are cute… but they are also robbers!
A hot tip from a photographer in one of my Facebook groups (thanks Thomas!) gave me the pleasure of visiting a kestrel nest from relatively close up.At first the nest box was deserted, because the “little ones” are already quite big and are already flying around. The whole family was sitting on the roofs all around. I think I counted 5 animals.
I lay down behind a bush for 20 minutes, opposite the box, and at least two came by. You a see how tense and concentrated the youngsters still are, when flying. The morning would be the right time to take photos there, because then you would have the sun at your back… but you have to work.
Beautiful animals and somehow there is a connection: I’m buying an “e” and would like to fly with it.
Honestly, this is the hardest thing I have tried to photograph so far. Swallows in flight. Small, as fast as an arrow and always hooking. Neither my hardware, or time nor my skills are sufficient. Here are a few “snapshots”, because there is no other way. Keep your eyes on it if you can, hope, pray and push the shuttler. 99% of the output was blurry or the bird was already far out of the picture. To make matters worse, clouds came up and the light faded. I wonder if that would be a case for a light barrier. But how to get this positions over a lake about 10m wide? No, I will need more than 30 Minutes of time and better light and probably a camera that can do more than 6 frames per second.
At least, thanks to the use of some AI tools, you can still see something in the pictures. I think I have a new task. So this is not a quality post rather than a call to action, to do it better next time.
A raven black with clever eyes,
in the neighbor’s garden flies.
There stood a tree so proud and grand,
with cherry fruits in sunlight’s band.
With cunning gaze and swiftest flight,
he took a fruit, a quick delight.
One bite, two bites – sweet and bright,
soon the tree was bare in sight.
This was chatGPT not me!
I swear I can do it better,
if I only had the time to type those kind of letters.
I promised to come up with a pretty post, after those alien insects. 😉
Back on the artificial turf field at BSC where Josh found the head and remains of a stag beetle a week earlier, this time the front part of a large Capricorn beetle was lying. And when I say big, I mean it! Wiki say it reaches up to 55mm length, but this was definitely of a bigger scale. The shocking thing was that he was still alive, even though everything from the wings downward was missing.
I picked him up and he held on tightly to my finger and sat him on the edge of the hockey rink. Let’s be honest: The animal looks like alien queen from Aliens. The next picture will be something nice again… I promise.
There are animals that you only see a few times in your life. My first encounter with a stag beetle was at a tennis tournament when I was probably 14 years old. I hit the ball… at least that’s what I thought, but there was a large stag beetle sitting on the fence, rearranging its limbs in a somewhat disturbed manner. During Corona we discovered one in the forest and then yesterday… he or better she came padding towards me in the middle of the road, because no antlers means it’s a female. The lady wasn’t shy at all and then obediently let me sit her down in the next bush. However, I was so taken aback by the encounter that I once again didn’t adjust the camera correctly. Well… next time, because I hope I see more of these micro-giants.
Father’s Day, oh yeah. I wished I could spend a few hours in the forest with my family, without any appointments. Last fall I discovered a few small pools in the forest and wanted to show them to the children, so we set off with our bikes and picnic basket.
No large animals to be seen and the drowned mandarin duck from two weeks ago had also disappeared. Marie then spotted this dragonfly that was just hatching. We watched her spellbound. A laborious process, but beautiful. After a good 20 minutes she had made it, but had fallen off her blade of grass and was lying on a leaf, like on a platter on her back. She was happy to accept a helping finger. We eyed each other and then set her down in the tussock further down, next to the leaf. Really pleased that my kids had the chance to witness this little wonder…
The frogs and toads are on the loose again at the Weilbacher Kiesgruben and although a lot of visitors get lost there when the weather is nice, these amphibians are anything but quiet. Shy, yes, but not quietly! If you sit quietly in the reeds for 10 minutes and wait, they start their concert again and if you move in tai-chi-mode, i.e. very slowly, they trust their camouflage and only hop away at the last second. So I was able to get very close to this table frog with my macro. I see you!
They are considered dirty, unclean, nasty and carriers of disease, but honestly… can those eyes hide any bad? It’s no secret that almost all animals can perform the “puppy dog look”. This one has brought the whole thing to perfection and lives on Friedrichsweiher, around the corner. No, it is shy, doesn’t beg – unlike all the birds – she zooms into her burrow and waits for old grannies to empty their bread basket there, or for the ravens to empty the garbage cans.
I really like rats and Orco, the rat that lived with me for a few years was very clean and was like a little dog. He – actually a she – came when you called, she was cheeky and funny. Unfortunately, she came out of a lab and got cancer very soon.
I only had an hour, but luckily I was already close to the forest. My senses were not deceiving me and I was near a small hidden clearing in the forest where there are a few water holes – no bigger than garden ponds – that I had discovered last year in autumn. The sun was already low and the fresh, green grass at the edge shone magnificently.
There was a Mandarin duck swimming in one of the lakes and something bright in the water next to it, which at first I thought was a thick birch branch. Looking through the telephoto, I saw that the branch had two strange, very symmetrical little cantilevers…. Wait, those look like bird legs an the feathers fit to a female mandarin duck! And indeed the male seemed to be guarding her.
It turned out that there were two males, but it was the one that kept coming back and was occasionally chased away by the other one. I have no idea what really happened here; probably a case for the bird CSI…. but the light was great and even dead water birds look elegant.
The house sparrow. Not shy… on the contrary, quite bold. First a wild look from the bushes, then a quick hop onto the table and then ingratiating myself to get piece from my cake. Gave some nice pictures, so he got some crumbs too.
The icy grip of winter is still felt and with temperatures below 5 degrees in the evening, clouds and lots of rain, the whole of spring is slightly delayed. This wasp looked anything but fit when I found it. I placed her in the sparse rays of the sun and soon she was gone. Before that, she posed nicely for me.
A few days off and out to the Edersee, in a small hut, on the beautiful paradise campsite. Turns out that there are not only the usual farm residents, but also two male peacocks and one of them is this wonderful albino. No matter who came by, no matter what squeaked and whistled… he answered and courted. Take a close look at him… if it weren’t for his jewelry, he would actually be pretty ugly. Nature knows how to package things beautifully.
First foray into the macro world. Anyone who follows my posts knows that I’ve wanted a macro lens for a long time, but was always too stingy. With the prospect of grey, cold, wet winter days with little light and mood, I bought this Sigma used. Except for two test photos, it stayed in the closet because the little creepy crawlies don’t really like the bad weather either. Then yesterday, while I was putting the pot back on the balcony, I came across this isopod, which was either sitting next to half of its relative or had just shed its skin. Sometimes I’m glad that I’m a big person and that these creatures don’t meet me at eye level.
Today I put all my obligations and appointments aside and went out into nature. The weather was suboptimal, as they say. It seems like April was a little early this year because it was raining heavily when I stepped outsid. Thanks to great apps, you can look at the cloud bands directly above your location and see when the rain takes a break, but of course that doesn’t save you if you’re in the middle of the forest and it’s pouring.
After the first 500m there was another shower and the idea of limiting the tour to a short lap creeped into my head, but then there was a big boost of motivation: This nice Mr. Buzzard was sitting on the other side of the street, right on the sidewalk. When I discovered him, passers-by came only about two meters past him and I was already cursing inside. They didn’t see him and he noticed that very clearly and stayed. On the other hand, he spotted me straight away, but it was another one of those magical moments where the animal realizes that I meant it no harm and reacted with curiosity rather than fear. I got within 3 meters of him and he posed and eyed me and the thick lens. Thank you, dear Buzzard, for these three minutes. Made my day! This gave me the motivation to continue my trip and I spent four fantastic hours in the forrest.
Down on the Main is the old loading terminal of the former Höchst/Clariant Chemie. The cormorants have taken over it and are drying their feathers high up above the water, in the sun.
It’s nice when old man-made things are conquered by animals and nature.
While the heron tends to move around with a gentle flap of its wings, it takes out the smallest and fastest animals when hunting: mice, frogs, hamsters… but it’s not called the “Fischreiher” (fish heron) in German for nothing, as it actually lives on banks and floodplains. The increased rainfall and resulting floods in recent years have created new wetlands – both voluntary and involuntary – and the heron population has increased significantly.
The big guy I was watching here took at least one fish out of the water during the 20 minutes and came away empty-handed twice.
It is a fixed rite for all animals that they practice body care. In swimming poultry, it is even fundamentally important that the fat from the gland specifically designed for this purpose is incorporated into the feathers. Because without this treatment they would simply perish. This Canada goose was bathing and kept diving head first into the water and letting it run down her back. Caught just as she lifted her head and the water was still running all over.
I’m back where I didn’t really want to be: too little time to do things right. How do you notice that? In this specific case, I no longer had enough daylight until I could go out with the camera… but whatever? The birds stay with me and this buzzard also allowed me to take a few nice photos, albeit with too high an ISO, which is why this picture was more of an attempt at art than a pure photo. Too many branches, but otherwise okay.
There are times when photography is easy and beautiful and there are times when the circumstances are anything but good. I have often met my special friend, the krestel, in his hunting grounds on the Fechenheim meadows or on the Bürgel side of the Main. This time I was out quite early and the sun remained in its bed of clouds. With a little software magic, you can still see it easily and yes, it is still winter when the birds prefer to pounce on the flattened menu on the street instead of hunting. 😉
There is something gracefully magical about them, the ravens. Always dressed up in their black feather tailcoats, they are everywhere. The common raven itself lives up to 28 years and we know from fairy tales and legends that they are clever. But even on the street you can see them cracking nuts by placing them on rails or dropping them from a height onto hard ground. Here are four beautiful pictures of the raven.
The day started with a headache and body aches and the children weren’t enthusiastic about going outside either – too cold, too grey and too unfit. With little hope of getting something great in front of my lens, I grabbed Spike and the camera and wanted to walk for an hour towards the forest, along the Hainbach. And suddenly he was, flying past me like an colourful arrow and sitting on a branch 30m behind me. I dropped everything, dog leash, gloves, bag and fumbled out the camera as quickly as I could so I could at least take a few pictures before he moved on. The disappointment came at home: ISO 18000. Thanks to a lot of post-processing, it is now “vieawble”. .. at least significantly better than the last attempt. I’m getting closer, yessss!
