Sunday Selections #58: The lousy shots of birds edition

I’ve been trying to shoot birds lately. With my camera mind you, not with a shotgun. Anyway, difficult thing to do. I often hear them, but don’t see them. And just before I do see them, they see me and fly off. Occasionally I manage to get a decent photo and sometimes I post them in my ‘normal’ posts, but more often I get lousy shots that I find difficult to delete, because they are the only shots of that particular bird I have. Apart from the robin. I have loads of robin-photos. He follows me around the garden, trying to get into the picture.

The not so good shots are therefore pointlessly hanging around in my computer, until it’s Sunday. Yay! Sunday Selections time. Hosted by the lovely Kim from Frogpondsrock. If you, like I, have folders full of photos waiting to be seen, hop over to the rocking frog ponds, follow the almost non-existent rules and join in.

I can see two birds in this shot. A male ‘merel’ (in Dutch) or blackbird and a ‘koperwiek’ or redwing.

 

A ‘koolmees’ or great tit. Strange name.

 

The robin managed to get his photo taken. Again.

 

This is a ‘winterkoninkje’ or wren (I think. I’m sure it’s a winterkoninkje, but not sure of its English name). It is one of the smallest birds in Europe, about 10 centimetres long. His tail always points upwards. It’s a quick mover and builds its nests near the ground in hedges or shrubs. Somewhere dense enough to get some shelter and feel safe.

This is more of a close up, but he just wouldn’t sit still *sigh*. Still, I’m very happy that I did get a shot of him/her. I will persist and do my best to get a terrific photo of a ‘winterkoninkje’ one day. We’ll have cake that day.

Oh, and look who I’ve spotted in the garden, checking out trees to build a home in perhaps? Or more likely, looking for food. I suspect he’ll rather have a dead birch, there are plenty of them around, to make his nest in.

Yep, it is a ‘grote bonte specht’ or woodpecker. Perhaps it is the same one I photographed with his family last year? Who knows.

Sunday Selections #57: The random selection

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday Selections is hosted by Kim from Frogpondsrock and is the place to post those photos that have been hanging around for far too long in folders on your computer. If you have poor, unseen photos lurking somewhere in the depths of your computer, join in and hop over to the rocking frog ponds to follow the almost non-existent rules.

This week I thought I’d give you an impression of last week’s weather. Blue skies, sun, snow and freezing. Quite nice actually.
Yesterday I went shopping with a friend in Groningen and people were ice skating on the canals. It looked so picturesque. But of course I didn’t have a camera with me. Perhaps I’ll go back to Groningen today to take some photos. Apparently today is the last day people can skate, because thaw will set in later this afternoon. We’ll see what the day will bring.

I tawt I taw a biwdy

 

When shooting this little birdy (probably the same one as in my previous post) I didn’t have to balance on one leg, while closing a gate at the same time as taking the photo. Life is much simpler when you just do one thing at a time. Really. I should try it more often.

 

Every time I bring a wheelbarrow full of horse manure to our muck heap, I see this little guy (or girl) sitting on top of the heap.

Our muck heap functions as a cheep cheap delicatessen shop, providing lots of yummy little insects and worms and it has a very diverse clientele. Robins aren’t as shy as a lot of the other customers, giving me a perfect opportunity to practice photography without having to do my famous, but very unsuccessful tree imitation to try and blend into the background.
The robin doesn’t care that I really don’t look like a tree and that one of my branches makes strange whirring and whizzing noises.

He, on the other hand, kept a sharp eye on me.

Romance?

Yesterday I went outside, in the freezing cold (just as we thought that spring was coming, winter arrived with –5 Celsius/23 Fahrenheit), to shoot some birds. Not for dinner mind you. ‘Shooting’ as in taking photographs.

I find photographing birds very difficult. They are quick and notice me ages before I notice them. I will have to explain the difference between a camera and a gun to them one day. But I managed to take some reasonable shots. Mostly of lots of branches with some birds hidden behind them. And then I saw these two wood pigeons. Since I’m not an expert on wood pigeons, I haven’t a clue if these are two boys or a boy and a girl. Or perhaps even two girls.

But I felt they were a boy and a girl and that there was something romantic going on, up there in the tree. And they didn’t take any notice of me at all, only having eyes for each other.

Aww. Sweet.

Only, then I went inside (did I mention it was, and is, bitterly cccccold outside?), looked through the kitchen window and the before so peaceful pigeons were fluttering around, seemingly attacking each other. Oh I don’t know. Was he trying to… you know… and did she think: “not on the first date honey!”, or was it a lovers’ tiff? Or have I totally misinterpreted things and were they two guys, checking each other out and then trying to chase the other away?

Do any of you speak pigeon?

Sunday Selections: #55, The woodpecker edition #2

Sunday Selections, THE time and place to post those photos that have been aimlessly hanging around on your computer. The lovely Kim from Frogpondsrock hosts this meme. If you want to join in, just hop over to the rocking frog ponds and follow the almost non-existent rules.

So, here’s the second lot of the photos I took of the woodpecker family. Daddy Woodpecker was quite a busy boy, feeding his hungry child(ren) (I think there was only one baby, but I could be wrong). I know that Mommy Woodpecker was nearby, but she didn’t trust me enough to take her turn in feeding the little one.

I have so many shots of the woodpeckers (most of them not very good, but that is why they were still hanging around in a folder) that I’m going to spread them out over a couple of Sunday Selections. So I know you’ll be back here next Sunday. It’s a cunning plan! Next week I’ll post the rest of the shots and then I will have to go through my folders again for shots of different subjects, that haven’t been posted yet. Oh, there are lots and lots and lots of them.

Sunday Selections #54: The woodpecker edition #1

Sunday Selections, THE time and place to post those photos that have been aimlessly hanging around on your computer. The lovely Kim from Frogpondsrock hosts this meme. If you want to join in, just hop over to the rocking frog ponds and follow the almost non-existent rules.

Since most of you really liked the baby woodpecker photo that was in my Sunday Selections last week, I thought I’d share the rest of the photos I took of the woodpecker family, with the risk of giving you an overdose. A couple of them have already been posted somewhere, but I don’t keep track of which photos I post on my blogs, not particularly well-organized of me, I know, so I’m really sorry if two or three photos aren’t sad, not-yet-been-used, ones. I know Kim will forgive me. Hopefully.

I have so many shots of the woodpeckers (most of them not very good, but that is why they were still hanging around in a folder) that I’m going to spread them out over a couple of Sunday Selections. So I know you’ll be back here next Sunday. It’s a cunning plan!

 

Oops, wrong entrance

 

Sunday Selections: The random edition

Sunday Selections, THE time and place to post those photos that have been aimlessly hanging around on your computer. Kim from Frogpondsrock hosts this meme. If you want to join in, just hop over to the rocking frog ponds and follow the almost non-existent rules.

Here’s my very random selection for this Sunday.

Christmas 2011 and perhaps you can see the cleverly crocheted snowflakes that were made by the bloggy brilliant Jinksy, who sent us a few. I never knew snowflakes could warm someone’s heart as much as these ones did mine.

 

Remember my very first Bun shoot? (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, see here.) This is friend, carrying what she was carrying then, but in a different way, and her horse.

 

See… we do lunge Evie using the caveson sometimes.

 

I almost feel this photo should be X-rated, hehe.

 

Baby woodpecker

Sunday Selections

 

Sunday Selections is hosted by Kim from Frogpondsrock and gives us an opportunity to post those photos that are lurking somewhere in some folder on your computer, almost forgotten. If you have folders filled with photos waiting to be shown to all of us, you can always hop over to the rocking frog ponds and join in.

 

Okay, maybe a tad too much of the same subject.
But I bet you feel all relaxed now.