Liverleaf (Hepatica nobilis) is a blue/violet spring flower which appears early spring in open woods. As far as I know it is not common in the Netherlands and as I do not know places/wood area's with these flowers, I bought some plants years ago together with some wood anomone's species and planted them in my garden; since then they are growing very slowly.
Maybe it's not fair but it saves me a lot of time and petrol costs.
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Bring the action! Like every year, I hear the Little Owls (Athene noctua) screaming nearby but on March 1st, it was the first time that I saw two owls sitting on my birdhouse. One week later, when I came back in the evening from a visit to the moor frog area, I heard them shout as soon as I get out of my car and I knew that they were nearby. One owl was sitting in the birch above the birdhouse. Very slowly I put down my tripod and with a shuttertime of 25 seconds I did not expect any reasonable image. After 5 images the other owl came and together they disappeared. As I have reasons to believe that there is real chance that they will use my birdhouse for the next generation, I created a new page on my website 'Little Owl'. Of course I hope that the day will come that I an 'catch' them at day.
As temperatures have been rising last week, I started visiting the moor frog area daily. The first three visits I did not see or hear any frog or other amphibian. On Tuesday, when I was at work, I received a sign that the first blue frogs were seen. Near the lake are two ponds with warmer water in which the majority of the moor frogs can be found and in which the spawn will be laid. Last Wednesday afternoon, I visited the area to 'catch' the moor frogs but to my surprise it seemed that they became more shy than last year. I used my new 150-600 mm lens but with every small step I made, a lot of the blue frogs dived under and their bubbling noise disappeared. Although I visited the ponds with warm and sunny weather when the frogs were active, their timidity became frustrating. On Friday, I checked the ponds twice and in the early afternoon when the sun was shining a lot of moor frogs were in the both ponds and two moor frogs were a little bit cooperative. It costed me some time and wet clothes to approach the moor frogs slowly.
Because of the backlight, I twice choose consciously an overexposure and used the flash to obtain their blue colour which they only have a few days to attract female frogs and ...... a lot of photographers. My plans for this morning to drive to a lake or creek to catch birds with the rising sun vanished as soon as I heard my alarm-clock. I was too tired but could not sleep anymore either, so I get out of my bed and looked through the window to see the first signs of a red sky.
I remembered the groups of snowdrops I found yesterday during a small walk nearby and the decision was quickly made. Not a long drive, not a long walk.....perfect! While I was lying in the muddy grass, I enjoyed the amazing sound of the birds. Twice a Eurasian Curlew came over with his remarkable call. As spring weather is forecasted for this weekend, I'm very curious if I will see my first butterfly of 2015 and if the frogs will become active...... |
Jibt dir dit Leben mal een Buff, denn weene keene Träne. Lach Dir'n Ast und setz Dir druff und baumle mit de Beene.
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