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Last Sunday I was 'en route' with Frank & Gerard again and we visited the same area as one year ago to search for the Queen of Spain Fritillary. We knew that the chance finding one of them was low. The first hour we did not find any living creature at all. But then we entered a meadow and found the first of 15 Small Coppers.
It's remarkable because the evening before I found two coppers roosting nearby my home and during my stay in the Vosges earlier, I photographed this species a few times. It looks like the third generation has better conditions than the first and second one!
Unfortunately all of them were roosting on places where it was impossible to catch them with the first or last warm light in the background. So I waited to catch them with open wings:
Although I found them in four different areas they had one thing in common....they were all roosting on brown/dead flower buds for optimal camouflage!  Small Copper - De Kempen Kleine Beerze
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Yesterday evening I visted 'my' old area around the Kleine Beerze with the hope to find some butterflies like the Common Blue or Small Heath. At day it was almost 26 degrees so I had good hope that they had emerged. Sadly I did not find a single butterfly. Fortunately I found an other 'victim' for my camera....a female Broad-bodied Chaser, a common dragonfly in this area. Photographing this dragonfly was hell as I forgot how bad mosquitoes are without protection.  Broad-bodied Chaser - Sony A7RII, tripod, remote release, 180 mm, 1/100 sec, F3.5, ISO100 The Orange-tip is probably one of the most photographed butterfly species in the Netherlands as they are very easy to find in rest on one of their larval foodplants. Next to it the Orange-tip is one of the first butterflies after the winter season and although I have a lot of photos of this species, I can not withstand the desire to search for them.  Orange-tip - Canon 7DMKII, tripod, remote release, 180 mm, 1/50 sec, F 5, ISO 100 Last year I said goodbye to 'my' area which I visited for almost 20 years as too many people were asking what I was doing. I found a new area with a lot of Cuckoo flowers and Orange-tips near water where I can use the colours and reflections in the water of the setting sun.  Orange-tip - Canon 7DMKII, tripod, remote release, 180 mm, 1/250 sec, F 3.5, ISO 100 After a holiday in the mountains it costs me a few days to get used again to the mono culture here in my region. The advantage of living in a flat country are the spectacular sunrises and sunsets; using them for photographic purposes is another thing as the big disadvantage of this region are the amount of maize fields. This week I found out that all my favourite spots nearby are surrounded by big maize fields; warm sunlight has no chance to get through it. As this week the sunrises and sunsets were very colourful; I visited the creek ‘Kleine Beerze’ which is really small at the moment due to lack of water. I found some common butterflies but unfortunately the sun disappeared behind the wall of maize before reaching the deep orange colour.  Vagrant Darter - Canon 7DMKII, tripod, remote release, refelctor, 180 mm, 1/40 sec, F 4.5, ISO200 This female Darter (I guess a Vagrant Darter/Sympetrum vulgatum) I found near the creek. On the other side of the creek there were some big old trees which were causing shadow what resulted in lower maize and some more golden reflections of the setting sun. Although I love summer and the presence of butterflies, dragonflies and other insects, I will be very happy when these maize fields will be harvested!
I'm angry and I feel helpless! Angry because beautiful nature has been ruined and helpless because I do not know how to change the situation.
 This is a part of the creek/area on 3 september 2013 when nothing was wrong.
A few days ago I was pleasantly surprised to find some fresh Common Blues nearby. Unfortunately it was very windy and the first evening it was impossible to photograph them so I only looked to the big setting red ball of fire. The next evening I returned to the same place and found out that the male Common Blues prefer sleeping places at almost the same location. Only the females were switched and I found a resting female on the ‘right’ place and waited some time for the deep colours in the sun......and almost became blind by looking into my view finder. At home I was editing my photo’s and although I liked one photo very much I was not really satisfied with the result as I had an other photo in mind.
Fortunately the clouds were disappearing the next evening so again I drove to the area and again I found the two male Common Blues and one was sitting out of the wind between the high grass so he was ‘mine’ and finally I could make the photo which I had in mind for a while! 
In the past week a lot of little creatures like butterflies and dragonflies, disappeared. Some of them I find again in spider webs. That’s the circle of life.....eat and be eaten! The European Garden Spider (Araneus diadematus) is the most common and well-known spider. The females are much larger than the males and the females are the web builders. On the web or in a nearby leaf they are waiting for prey to get entangled in the web. The prey is then quickly captured and wrapped in silk before being eaten. Here a grasshopper jumped into the wrong direction.....as the spider was sitting nearby on a leaf it looks like the grasshopper committed suicide.  Canon 7D; tripod; remote release; 180mm, 1.6s at F10 and ISO100 The catch on this image was an Asian Lady Beetle (Harmonia axyridis).....you can see that this beetle used his defensive chemical (yellow/orange stuff) isopropyl methoxy pyrazine. When agitated, they releasing it from their legs.  Canon 7D; tripod; remote release; 180mm, 1.6s at F9 and ISO100 Time is really flying and in one week a lot can happen. I rescued two animals which gives me a lot of energy although......I kept one and he costs me energy as he is 6 or 7 weeks old. Writing a new blog is almost impossible as he is walking over my keyboard and needs a lot of attention. This sweet little thing was crying for help and nobody stopped nor helped him....it’s unbelievable for me that a lot of human beings pass an animal in need without helping! Nature is changing very quick now; a lot of butterfly species are gone and not much flowers are left. Every hour which I have available I go out and search for spiders, butterflies and other creatures. The only butterflies which I recently found in the evening was the Small Heath (Coenonympha pamphilus). It’s an inconspicuous species with his brown wings and an unusual sleeping posture.  Canon 7D; tripod; remote release; 180mm, 1/10s at F9 and ISO100 Yesterday evening I was very happy that I found two Small Heaths in the last sunlight. Unfortunately one butterfly changed its sleeping position but the other one was cooperative. Here you can see the same butterfly in almost the same position, one without and one with sunlight on his wings.....it’s amazing what sunlight can do!  Canon 7D; tripod; remote release; 180mm, 1/10s at F9 and ISO100 In the last minutes all the clouds disappeared and I witnessed a beautiful red sunset.....it was a race against time but I’m satisfied with the following result of the same butterfly:  Canon 7D; tripod; remote release; 180mm, 1/100s at F3.5 and ISO100 Last Wednesday evening a lot of people watched the European Football Championship game the Netherlands against Germany. Although I’m living in the Netherlands for about thirty years now, on that kind of days the hard statements about Germans touches me. On Facebook ‘friends’ were laughing about some voodoo doll photos and although I’m not interested in football at all, from that moment on I hoped that the Germans would win. Fortunately I had some other plans for that evening and so I went out; no television for me! I drove to the Kleine Beerze to see if I could find some resting dragonflies or butterflies. After photographing a small dragonfly I walked around for a while and enjoyed the fact that I was alone out there. Low between the grass I found some photogenic flowers and while I was photographing them, the group of Scottish Highland Cattle became closer. It’s a small group of three grown animals and a little calf (which was two weeks old on Wednesday). Comparing to the cattle group of last year these four animals are really shy; they run away immediately. So while I was lying there in the grass I changed my lens and tried to photograph the little calf which was not easy as the grass was much higher. Then suddenly the calf run to it’s mum, the sun was coming out and there the two were standing, cuddling each other in the last sunlight......  Photographing the love between this mother and her child gave me a happy feeling. When it became dark I walked back to my car and on my way home I noticed the serious expression on the faces of some people which I passed. Despite voodoo the football fever was over!
With this beautiful winter scenery I spent most of the weekend outside. This one was taken yesterday morning. As I did not expect a red sunrise I was focused on macro when a deep red horizon appeared. Unfortunately I was on a place which is not suitable for landscape photography (too many farmhouses with big stables) so the only option I had was to pick out some detail and zoom.....fortunately I found these cigars (also called Common Bulrush).  Canon 7D; tripod; remote release; 35-350mm at 95mm, 1/40s + flash at F5.6 and ISO100 For a decent composition I had to lean on the ice but two metres behind the water was open so it was an exciting operation. Due to the cold (that morning it was ‘only’ –11,6 degrees Celsius) the manual focus of my lens did not work properly anymore. But, the worst thing was that only a few minutes later somebody was entering the area and although he had the choice to walk into diverse directions he walked into mine (I think that a photographing woman in the field is like a magnet to men). As soon he reached me he started to talk.....that he was a hunter (lucky me); despite my non-speech signals he stayed around too long. After he continued his walk I just wanted to continue when I saw a luminous jacked in my frame.....the next male walker and of course he came to me and started talking......I will be happy when sun rises earlier in a few months!!!!!
Portfolio -> Kleine Beerze |
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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