Posts in Category: fauna
30 minutes with the grey heron
Gray herons are not an uncommon guest on my blog, which is because they have been reappearing in our cities in recent years – you just see them more often. I can’t say exactly what it is, but there’s something about these animals: while they look very graceful and beautiful profile, they look a bit dumb and weird from the front. This fellow here wasn’t shy, but kept his distance when I got too close to him.
Roe deer
After my heart attack in January, I had to slow down and load up less. Instead of being stuck in front of the screen, I went out with the camera and was outside for several hours almost every day and that’s what my body needed. The animals seemed to sense that I was no longer so hectic, so charged, and they remained so. Some of the most beautiful pictures were taken because the subject I was photographing found me just as interesting as I did. Impatience and lack of time are the death of good photos, as I have now learned after 17 years, and it is therefore clear why the results are better now than all the years before. On the one hand, I was traveling alone and didn’t have to take anyone into account. No children making noise and running ahead, no partner impatiently waiting for me to take the picture… just me, the animals and the camera. It’s a shame, because my two children are very fond of animals, but they are too impatient to wait long for something.
This deer was no exception. It was preening itself in the evening sunshine and initially didn’t notice me as I approached slowly, but after work I’m usually busy too and so it noticed me quite quickly. A wonderful indicator that I need to spend more time outside to find peace. On the other hand I would love to go on a trip with a likeminded photographer. Always nicer to share adventures.Â
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Squirrel
I really dig those little critters and I am happy that they become common guest in our gardens and parks. Don’t know if it was me, neglecting my surrounding when I was younger… but no!… they seem to invade the city en masse, lately.
Spent 20 minutes with this one that was very busy jumping around, collecting nuts at Schlosspark/Bürgel. Sadly the light is vanishing quite early already and so there is not much time after work. These fotos were shot on highes ISO and they turned out to be soooooo noisy that I would have kicked them in the virtual dustbin, but once more Topaz Laps turned them into something to show… at least when you don’t zoom in.
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Gorillas
Browsing through my photos of this year and sorting out massive amounts, as space is scarce I found these two pictures of probably the boss of the lowland gorillas. Impressivly strong animals. Would have loved to spent much more time with them, but family dragged on. A truth about photography: it takes time to do it right. As much as I love to have the kids with me on a photo-trip, I don’t think it going to happen anytime soon. And so the clock often runs in favour of the family which is absolutely correct decision, but the images suffer. Probably I love being surrounded by animals, even kids. 😉
Comoroant in the wind
As common on islands you get a fair bit of wind and storms. The last three days have been up to “Orkanböen” (hurricane), hence wind up to 10-12 Beaufort at times. Sun and rain kept coming and going in the usual 5 minute turns and I had a hard time to keep my lens out of wind direction, as it blew up a lot of sand which acted as flying sandpaper.
Animals are used to be outside the whole time and can deal with harsh conditions better then we humans do, although the cormorants don’t seem to be happy about the flying sand either. They kept shaking off the sand and rather stayed ashore. Only could get a few shots from behind, as they were sitting in a restricted breading area where passer were asked not to step in.
Arctic tern
The name derives from their breeding area, high up around the north pole. During the harsh winters, it travels all the way down to the south pole which makes it the the migratory bird with the longest travel. I watched them hunt, over at Ellenbogen/Sylt until the rain came. Would have loved to stay longer, but I wasn’t alone and had to catch the ride back. Great flyers and wonderful to observe. This pictures do hardly justice to their skills…
Strandskade
… so the oystercatcher is called here in Denmark, which literarily translate to beach magpie. Indeed it’s black an white feathers provoke similar names in other countries. In Germany it fun name is “Halligstroch”. Once again the similarities to an ostrich are bound to its black and white appearance and its storming around in the mud.
I had to find a spot where I could approach them better and faster than in the muddy wadden sea. Luckily Rømø is connected to the mainland via a huge dam that even has a bicycle path. I rode out there and along the dam birds were sitting in lager flocks… and off course they took off whenever I got closer than fifty meters. Anyway, light was good and they seem to know that they didn’t have to go far to be out of my reach.
Actually, I got out there in hope to find some bald eagles hunting. Yes, their population is growing and they found out about the wadden sea and its festive table of food. Somewhere I read that they often can be observed from the dam Off course no eagles too be found but that kind of endeavor takes more than one spontaneous cycle ride to be successful. Enjoy their oystercatcher in flight. I did and the challenge I posed to myself in the last post… well, check!
Bar-tailed godwit
Wikipedia states that they are an endangered species, although noting that they tend to show up in large flocks of ten thousand birds a more in the wadden sea. Here on Rømø they do appear along the shallow shores of the madden sea quite frequently. Took me few hours and dirty cloth to get near enough to get some decent pictures. There is nothing to hide when water is gone and the flat, muddy ground with its inhabitants that are used to spent half a day under water and the next in the wet mud. When I was farest from the shore the rain set in and it was about than that they partly started ignoring me and seem to care more about digging for foot than running away from me. Before I wasn’t able to get closer than 30 meters, as one of them hissed its waring call and all flew off. This was the first session and there is more to come. The oystercatchers are far more sensitive and shy away earlier….. challenge accepted. 😉
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water strider
Fossil findings show they were here about a 100 Mil. years ago and they are still around. They are fast – up to 1,5m/s and they can jump as far as 35cm and that all on the surface of water. You have to be somehow impressed, right?
talking to a buzzard
Not much time left for the fine things in live when you gotta job to do. Yesterday I rushed home, grabbed my camera, hopped on my bike and got to the Carl Ulrich Brücke where I got a flat tire. Walking from here, only left me with one hour for getting to the renatured grounds on the Fechenheim side – not much, but it turned out to be worthwhile.
I already could hear this buzzard scream, while I was climbing down the steep steps at the bridge. A few meters away there was a tiny path leading to another billabong that I never noticed. Bushes flanked both sides, so I had kind of a natural cover. Of course it noticed me first and flew off, screaming all the time. I started to whistle an answer, trying to imitate its call and suddenly it flew right above the small trees, right over my head. This game continued for a couple more rounds and ended, while lady with a huge dog appeared and shied it away.
Guess, I never got that close to a buzzard and it was a really touching experience. While looking through the net, I found a recent article from NABU, saying that buzzards are known to protect their nests against jogger, even attacking them. It was screaming before I got near and so I want to believe that it was calling for its offspring and not shouting at me to get lost.
red admiral – 15 minutes with the butterfly
I must have been around 4 or five years old. It was summer and I was sitting with my granny in the garden watching the butterlies. I always wanted to catch one and this very day I managed it. It was sitting on a flower, wings closed above is head an I just walked up to it and crabbed it with two fingers. So happy that I ran up to my granny showing it to her. The next thing I noticed was a strange power on my fingertips. It had the the same colours as the the wings of the butterfly. My Grandpa walked by and explained to me that the butterfly now has to die, because of my touch. I was devastated and since then I only observe them. This red admiral is probably on his big trip and seemed to be as curious as me. He only flew off when I got to close, circling me and landing again in short distance, observing me.
beauty goose
Beauty shot of a Canadian goose – not quite a duck face, 🙂 I like them much better than the Egyptian goose that flood our seas and rivers over the last years. Wonder if this is due to the fact that they are loud an pushy, tend to embark on the other water birds and are loud, where as its Canadian counterpart is gentle and seldom aggressive, though losing its habitat to the “stronger” fellows. This is a problem I am still struggling with my own kids: Shall I raise them to be reserved, generous and helpful in any way and probably get run over and pushed aside by the rude other ones that just don’t care about others or should I tell them to go bully and grab what they want? Guess the truth is that even if I opt for the latter I couldn’t pull it off as I was raised the polite way. At the moment it seems a little outdated but I hope for the long term effect….
black-crested gibbon
This gibbon is part of a family living Zürich zoo. Love to watch them swing through their territory – soooo fast and with such ease – just elegant. They are monogam and defend their territory against threats, which renders them one of the big loser species that really suffer under the vanishing rain forest.
demoiselle
It is so much life around the rivers and meadows. Seems to be a good year for dragonflies – they are everywhere and overall. Here are some pictures of banded demoiselles, minding their business.
starlings
I find those to be very sociable, funny birds. Always in groups and never alone, they march over fields and meadows in order to find insects. In Bieber the field was mowed and between the cutoff excess the starlings were jumping around, hunting the insects that were not fast enough to find shelter. Happy yummy yum.
mighty ducks
One thing I like about being out and capturing the animals around me is the fact that you look more closely to animals that are very common, e.g. ducks. They can be seen on any bit of water around here, no matter if in the center of the city or in a remote river hidden in the woods. Especially the male ones are very nice to look at with quite some color palette on their feather dress. Here are a some shots showing how this drake prepares itself and later starts to orchestrate….
muscovy duck
There are creatures that radiate a certain authority and seem to be dangerous by nature. Ugly or interesting? Can’t make up my mind on this muscovy duck. It’s face and look are rather of nightmares, isn’t it?
golden lion tamarin
The name is actually not that strange as it seems. Take a close look at its face. It’s got the expression and shape that resembles a lions face although not the eyes – the mane does the rest. Like those little critters! Shot through thick glass at the Zürich Zoo so images are not particular sharp.
As all the sorts of lion tamarins their population is constantly decreasing due to Barzil clearing off their rainforest.
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wagtail on the hunt
Wagtails are very common around here. Wherever there is water and some bushes you will most likely find one of them, patrolling the shoreline, jumping into the air, flapping and catching insects. Overcast and a little windy, plus the tendency to wiggle and wobble through the air made these shots a challenge. Focus was slow, so was my reaction and I would have needed more focal length to get closer.
trouble ahead
Goose as a race seem to be very vehement when it comes to guarding there territory. As soon as other goose appear far at the sky, they start shouting and threatening the new arrivals. Especially the Egyptian goose seems to have this habit. As there is only so much space on smaller lakes the confrontation is unavoidable and only a question of time. Here are two pairs colliding at the ruin of Mühle Renigishausen. Beavers seem to have build a dam and flooded the forrest behind. A really nice spot, but mostly in the shadows.
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frogs
If there’s water, there will be life! In the last couple of years a lot of renaturing efforts have been made around Offenbach. The Hainbach has been “renaturiert”, hence they broke up the sleek and straight riverbed and generated sidearms that will overflow when enough water is present. This generates new sanctuaries for flora and fauna and animals like beavers are coming back. Same was done in a larger scale at river Main. New sidearms have been created.
While it still looks a little bald around the new formed ponds, life seems to get there quickly. Felled trees with clear signs of beaver teeth are present, as well as lots of birds and amphibians as these marsh frogs. The little pond is littered with tadpoles and you can hear the frogs quarks from a far. Shy as they are, they note when you get close. Took me over an hour to figure how to  sneak up to them and get some shots, which almost involved me taking off my shoes and shorts and getting into the lake. In the end I managed it through patients, slow tai chi moving and waiting.
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wren
Did you know that a wren is called “Zaunkönig” in German? That means king of the fence. According how loud these very tiny birds sing, it is an appropriate name for its species. Mighty words by the tiny mighty king.
woody woodpecker
…once more. The more time I spent in the woods, the more of these funny birds I find – or at least their laughing sound can be heard everywhere. This was not so shy at all although he spottet me first and flew off a few meters. Sneaking up and moving very slowly he did not mind me anymore for a couple of seconds.
magpie vs blackbird
Rainy day and not much light. Usually not a day for good pictures, so I went out to the Gradierbau and sat in one of the beach chairs reading a book. Blackbird started yelling his alarm signal as two magpies came close to their nest. It even went after it and started attacking one magpie. I was in no good position to get a good shot, but the action is captured with distracting backdrop, high ISO grain and too high position…. next time I get myself out in the rain and down on the ground.
greylag goose
Just like the changeable weather, which overwhelms you with new moods every minute, it is just as wild and unsteady with the geese. There’s a bang every few minutes. They scold and threaten each other, flap their wings and chase each other across the lake. The graylag geese are naturally outnumbered and so they flew away to have their peace. Don’t know about you, but those grey geese along with its cousins, the domestic goose are the most beautiful and I alway look closely if I can spot Nils and carrot his hamster… 😉
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buzzards nest
Two weeks ago I took a rest and got a seat in one of the beach chairs around a Gradierbau. Reading on my phone and enjoying the sun that finally made up its mind and came through the clouds, I heard buzzards call a fews times. Suddenly I noticed a huge bird landing in one of the nearby pine trees. I jumped to my camera and turned it on blindly not taking my eyes of the place where the bird landed, approaching it slowly. There it was: a big buzzard, right above a bridge that leads over river Usa and into the south park. A lot of people were minding their business below passing by and this huge, shy bird just sat there, till I came closer and once I got in a good position and plain sight, it noticed me as well. The camera lens, like a big eye pointing at it made him feel uncomfortable and so it flew off quickly.
A couple of days later I noticed that two bustards constantly hitting this tree again and again. Turns out they are building their nest, right at the top of this pine. Wisely they put it where it is hard to spot and no way to take pictures. Privacy rules, even in the land of birds.Â
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sparrowhawk
My rehab sessions are distributed over the whole day leaving me with scattered breaks of a few minutes to a hours each day. Today there was not enough time to go out during noon, so I watched some wildlife photography tutorials on YouTube. Suddenly I had a feeling that someone was watching me and noticed a movement at the edge of my perception. Yes! A sparrowhawk was having a break as well on the nearby clinic roof. I stumbled to the closet and got my cam out, throwing all my neatly hanging cloth off the windowframe that I put there in order to dry after washing and started shooting. Bird did not move much and I had only ten minutes till my next course startred. Sadly it did not fly off during that time (probably would have missed the shot anyway without a tripod), but I got some nice pictures nonetheless. Look how sternly he’s looking at me once my cloth were gone. I won the staring competition!
Always nice, when the “prey” turns the table and “hunts” you.Â
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treecreeper
This tiny bird can be found nearly everywhere in our hemisphere although spotting one isn’t easy. With its prefect camouflage it repeats the pattern of moss and bark and is almost invisible when not moving. A true master of climbing, it moves quickly up trees an branches hunting for insects. This particular one got a spider with its web out of an old apple tree . There are different subspecies with subtle differences that are hard to tell.
playing hide & seek with a blue jay
Love these blue jays! They are quite common and besides looking beautiful, they are clever as well. Usually they always show up in pairs or couples and always keep a fair bit of distance between them and us. This one was no exception: As you can see on the pictures, it alway flew off and hid behind some branches peeking back at me, observing what I would do next. I know, these pictures are far off the norm and are no good in terms of classical wildlife photography rules, but I really like the outcome – probably due to me being part of the hide and seek game I played with them?
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mouse
When you walk in the woods mice are almost everywhere. To spot them is not so hard, to take picture of them is tiny challenge already. This fellow was so kind and just sat a few moments and stared at me.
kingfisher
This is the second time in my life that I met a kingfisher. The first was about 10 years ago while walking along the Heinbach. Suddenly there was a tiny blue shimmering spot on a brach over the water. Turned out to be one of them and it was gone so quickly that I hardly trusted my vision. Was it really a kingfisher? Whenever I come back to the Heinbach I hope to meet one again and having my camera with me. Truth is, that I almost spent half of the first covid lockdown – almost half a year – there nearly every day and never saw one again.Â
Today I went for a walk from Bad Nauheim to Friedberg, along the river Usa. After a few meters on track it occurred to me that I probably won’t make any good pictures here. Lots of people passing by and hardly any birds to be seen. When I finally took out the cam to observe a tiny bird on the other shore, an older man stepped up to me, asking “Are you taking pictures of the little holes in the grass?” I told him what I was aiming at. He smiled and replied “There is a kingfisher down the river”. I was not sure, if I understood him correctly and I thought, how could he know? Â Those birds are shy and tiny. You have to look very close to find them. Turns out, he was right. A few hundred meters down the Usa gets split up and one arm ends, right before a bridge in some kind of natural shallow pool. The topology and vegetation is perfect for kingfishers: partly flowing river, with basins of still water and branches and bushes reaching over. And really… from a far I could make out this tiny saphire blue shining glow through the bushes. I got closer, but as soon as I raised the lens, it flew off, leaving me with a no-photo, as messed up shots are called by some photographers. Anyway. As this is my blog and documents my progress, I will post it here – stick it to my wall, reminding me that I have to learn a lot more about sneaking uo to an animal and will do my best to improve. This bird is just one of the most beautiful out there and with this entry it is save that this is my new mission, to find and take a good foto of a kingfisher.
Ohhh yes.. there is a good foto of a kingfisher on this site, but that was shot in India and this species is not shining like a blue diamond. > kingfisher
Funny addition: While I was crouching through the bushes, trying to get a climpse around the next curve, suddenly something made a splash in the water. Turned out it was this fish that just had caught an insect. I came closer and eyed me from below. Always like it, when animals are as curious as I am.Â
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blue tits bad feather day
Weather is a changing and it feels like april already. Lots of wind, tons of rain and constant chasing light. I love this, although my lens seems to have some issues since the last rain shower. I looses contact with the camera, resulting in an error. Have to check the bionette which seems to be a little loose. A slight turn and it registers again, but already cost me two shots. Birds don’t seem to care much about the conditions… how could they? Although these blue tit had its bad feather day, after the shower. Kein Drei-Wetter-Taft in sicht. 😉
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fieldfare
A new bird that I saw a while back but had no clue what it was as it was always too far away of me too slow. A Wacholderdrossel as they are called in German. Lucky me met took my chance and went out as soon as the rain stopped for a couple of minutes. The whole family consistent of a couple that is building a nest right across the street of my rehab was very busy in collecting material like grass, sticks and hay. Â Once new material is dropped into the nest, the whole buddy is used to shape up the interior making the bird sometimes look like its back is broken and you can only see tail and head sticking out.
a moment with robins
First day of my rehab gave me time to explore the woods around Bad Nauheim. Skiwiesen is a lovely spot and next to it the NABU had taken reign over some old “Streuobstwiesen” and the whole spot screams Owls and it is a paradise for most birds. Here are some pictures of robins that showed as much interest in me, as I had in them. Don’t ask me what happened to the one with its beak on the wrong side of its head. Guess it was shaking hard, as it was raining a bit prior to this shot.
woodpecker
Same day on which I had the luck to meet both relatives of the woodpecker family and this fellow was sitting quite low on trunk. Doesn’t it look very stern?
Light was not the best so I had to crank up the ISO and used some tools to make those images look nicer. Location: somewhere between Maunzen- and Jacobiweiher.
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mr. green
They are quite a common guest in the woods around here and they are not even hard to track down once you learned about their call; it sound a little bit like a high pitched laughter. The hard part, is to get a decent shot of the green woodpecker. Quite shy, it stays in the upper reaches of the trees, despite hunting for insects on the ground. So it would take patients and time to get this right. I am not at the point where I am ready to spent a day in a hideout and wait for the bird to come into my viewfinder. All these images here are more or less drive by actions and so this one is shot from below, while it was climbing up a tree and singing… eh.. laughing at me, when on top. 😉
This was taken at the Jacobiweiher.
canadian goose
This was an early trip to Maunzenweiher mostly due to the time change – summer time, although it is still freezing at night. I sadly missed the dispute between two goose couples. Basically they were fighting for being close to me, as I was having a croissant for breakfast. They had been lamenting and shouting at each other for minutes when finally one took off darting at the other couple. Lots of spray and splash and then they went off the other direction, leaving me with my croissant on the muddy floor and this one shot that depicts one goose approaching and shouting for the third attack.
Afterwards the couple that was already close to me came by and started shouting and head banging at me. Probably this is how they beg for food – they got none!
buzzard
Taking a longer walk from the Schlosspark Rumpenheim back home this buzzard was waiting on a tree besides the dam. I was on the dam and on the perfect eye level – sadly it was facing the wrong direction and the sun was right behind it. Too late I noticed that is was actually a couple, but having Spike on a leach dragging me away it is wonder that I even captured it. A lot of retouching later…
White heron
We got quite used to the grey herons. In the last ten years you can find them around almost every billabong, but the white ones, especially the bigger ones, I did not encounter the frequently. This one was very shy and when I crushed into the scene with my bike and its screeching brakes, it was clear that he had a keen eye on me. Half the way on the ladder to the nearby perch it flew off and left me with at least two nice images. Need to learn how to approach shy animals.
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nuthatch
The big advantage of living in a metropolitan area is that you basically are never alone, even in the woods. With the Frankfurt airport nearby and big autobahns like the A3 crossing our region it is even never really silent and so the animals adopt to people and noise and sometimes are not shy at all. I passed this nuthatch on my bike and when I turned and unpacked my camera it was sitting there, just watching me as I was aiming and shooting a it. Truth to be told… this does not happen this often and I spoil and do scare away more birds than I like to admit. Improving my fieldcraft is probably the next thing to do. But this shot made my day, right at the beginning of my trip.
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mandarin duck fight
Ahhh mating season! Although these shots were from last weeks visit to Maunzenweiher where it was still freezing cold (see the ice the birds sit on?) the first spring feelings among the mandarin ducks were already sensible. There was a lot of pushing, shoving and fighting going on among the colourful drakes. It was almost noon but sun was weak and hanging low, if at all. Most of these shots are retouched and still are far from perfect, but they tell the story.
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Karbenmoran
I’ve been working at the Dögelmühle in Karben for more than twenty years, crossing the Nidda almost every day. It had been a more or less straight channel, with trees and vegetation cut back in order to provide unhindered flow. The effect of this is that you hardly could see any water birds that usually show up such places. Luckily a certain area had been renatured a few years ago and those measures seem to show effect: ducks, coots, swans and cormorants I found. One of the latter was resting in the middle of the stream on a sunken tree and was not so shy as it siblings I encountered elsewhere. Spent a good hour with it and although I missed the shot I was hoping for – it taking off and flying away – I got some really decent pictures.
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nut crow
Crows are everywhere in Offenbach. They are smart, get quite old and tend to rummage through waste bins. This fellow found a peanut on the ground. No time to observe it any further, as the Spike was running ahead, while the kids were heading in the other direction – photography takes time and patients…
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Zoo Frankfurt
The kids got their school reports and as a tradition we as a family do something special on that day. We went for a nice asian buffet (we ate far too much) and headed for the Frankfurt Zoo. When we arrived, it was raining and only about two hours left before it closed, so not the best signs. The images you see here were all shot with high ISOs and were partly very noisy. I had to push them through a few tools and so they are all heavily altered.
The all new enclosure for the penguins is great. All my life, I saw them in the Exotarium, living in that tiny space behind glass. Now they got their new home right next to the seals – outdoor and a much bigger basin to swim in with a viewing area for the visitors. Great! The old reigns has yet to be redefined, as many of the penguins uttered calls to mark their territory.
The humidity was so hight that I could not get my lens clean, when entering the ape house (Borgori-World) – next time.
Cormorants
Cold and slight sleet showers were not the ideal weather to go for a shoot, but I needed to get some fresh air and went for a walk to a nearby lake called Maunzenweiher. Usually there are a lot of ducks and a few herons around, but this time I even noticed two cormorants. I wrongly took the grey feathered head for a sign of age, but it is just the opposite: this one is young fellow – and although a lot of people were hiking, jogging and walking around the lake, it was again me stopping and pointing a big lens (eye) at it, that made it play hide and seek with me. At some point I got a few decent shots of him sitting and cleaning his feathers, but I missed his flyoff, touching the water with his feet, the first few swings. Crap!
Cormorant was NABU bird of the year 2010. Another German name for it is “Berufsfischer” (professional fisher) and indeed fishermen don’t like them very much. They are good divers and and their main dish is fish. Since a couple of years the population seems to grow  again constantly after they were consequently hunted throughout the first half of the last century.
A walk in the ISO-park…
… well, actually it is called the Fasanerie in Auheim (near Hanau) which is a wild park. Took my new Nikon D7200 for a walk, along with the family. No sunshine, low clouds and my trusty old Sigma 150-500mm that tends to be not the sharpest at 500mm. Usually I dial it down to 400-450mm and it will go up to F 5,6 or more. Bad conditions that would have been for my D90, but the D7200 cranks up the ISO on its own, when set to auto-ISO and that was the right day to test how far I can get with this setting. Turns out the images look far better than those out of the D90 with a quarter of the ISO – non the less there is big loss in sharpness, texture details and light.
Saviour was Topaz Labs duo of Denoise AI and Sharpen AI. Results are far from professional, but good enough for me. Usually most of these shots would have been no-photos and end up in the trash bin. I count this as a good exercise on how to deal with bad weather, unsharpened lens and high ISOs. Now you can polish shit and make it shine like gold.. at least a bit. 🙂
Robin
May I introduce you to one of the my beloved bird friends. This is Robin or Rotkehlchen, as they are called here in Germany. They are very common and are all but shy. Quite the opposite: they are very curious and are not afraid of getting close to you. Whenever I come across one of them, if feels like it is rather watching me instead of me watching it.
This little fellow didn’t even move when I approached him with my bike and stayed when I hit the my squeaking brakes and stopped a few meters away from it. He took notice of me, fiddling with my gear and the big lens, Â was so curious and came closer. In the end, it even sat on my bike, right beside me as it wanted to have a nice chat with me. Love it!
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Impact
The rooftop sides of our house are pure glass with wooden frame structure. I remember, as a kid, when birds would try to fly in not noticing the glass and ending with a loud thump on our balcony. Depending on the speed and the angle they hit the glass front they ended up in a wide range from broken neck and dead to just dazed. My parents had those stickers of large birds of prey silhouettes on every big window and they helped a lot. About 10 years ago they were coming off and I replaced them with Space Invaders …. off course! 😉 A few birds still don’t seem to notice and so we do have impacts from time to time.
The most prominent was a woodpecker who’s brain is luckily made for taking a hard bang. He was just dazed and when he regained his consciousness back poked me right in the hand – completely different type than those pigeons that do it usually. Pigeons tend to give in to their fate and once you got hold of them don’t seem to fight. Guess this one had a hard time recovering, if it did at all. There was the whole head, body wings – you could see every wingtip) on the window. I had a hard time capturing it and only partly succeeded, but will probably try it again.
Dexter gone
I don’t have words for this kind of incidents: death belongs to live and without it there would be nothing. You know that a lifespan has and end – sometimes very abrupt sometimes you see it coming. In case of Dexter there were signs. During the last half year he went from old but active to very old and somehow sluggish, though he took his duties in ernest: barking at the postmen, looking after the kids… he was brave and never complained. The cancer won over and raptured his liver, so it was time to see the doctor for the last time. Another empty spot on the sofa and and in our hearts. We miss you, old friend! Say Hello to all that went before and are waiting in doggy heaven. Love and rest in piece.
