| APRIL |
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In April I've been focussing on marshbirds, like Reed Bunting and Sedge Warbler. Reed Bunting is a resident in Holland and stays here all year round, but during this month several marsh dwelling songbirds are arriving from Africa. First of all: Bluethroat, followed by Sedge Warbler, Savi's Warbler, Reed Warbler, etc. I prefer to picture these birds in their natural environment, which in this case is, of course : reed. Sometimes you see fantastic photo's of these birdspecies, very sharp, with good light und such, but also sometimes the birds seem to be taken out of their habitat. Here is an example of what I mean by a bird pictured in his normal habitat: a male Reed Bunting in late afternoon light. Another example is the next picture I took from a singing Sedge Warbler:  The bird is not entirely visible because of the reed, but the mainparts are. The bird itself is located in a sort of window in the background of reedvegetation. This photo is also taken during late afternoon in semi backlight. During the second half of April I found, during a cycletrip to the old little town of Hasselt, a fair number of the beautiful and endangered Snakehead's Lillies. They come in two colourvarieties: The purple ones are the most dominant and a few of these delicate flowers are white. About 90 % of all the Snakehead Lillies occuring in The Netherlands, are blooming in a small area around the tributaries Zwarte Water and Overijsselse Vecht. These flowers ask for a very special habitat. The only places where they still exist are nature-reserves and the policy in these areas are completely based on the optimal conditions for these flowers. On a beautiful evening in April I went to this area and pictured the Snakehead's with backlight, during and after sunset. I used my Nikkor 500 mm lens on a ricebag, which was laying on the ground to obtain the lowest possible point of view. Here are two results:   These flowers are pictured by many people but, in this way, I've tried to do it in a special way. The last 2 days of April I spent in Finland with Jeroen Scheffers, from the VNF-Apeldoorn. Our main objective was: BEARS (see next chapter of this Newsblog) |
