Fish

In Holland we have quite some zoo's, and some are really nice. One of the nicest we have in Holland, is called Burgers zoo.

In this park they have a couple of theme buildings.
Like mangrove, bush, desert and the ocean. The ocean is one of my favorites.

It contains over 8 milion liters of water, and manny different animals. Like the bulletfish on the left.

You start your tour, through the ocean at the beach.
Then when walking , you go deeper and deeper. First the fishtanks mostly contains coral, and at the end mostly fish.

Onces your are under the water level completely, the big fish on the right is waiting for you. I can't find the right name of the species, so if you know please leave it in a comment.

There are way more fish in this tank.

Then going through the tunnel, you end up in a room with a big glass wall. This is where the though guys/girls are kept.

They have Hamerheads, Blacktips, Zebra sharks and a couple of other fish. The hamerheads are kept a part from the others, they also have bubbles in front of the windows.

At the other half you can see the blacktips, who swim arround to show who's the boss in that part of town.

Being so close to these magnificent animals, is just really cool. I could go to the zoo and just stare a couple off hours, to the big window and see the sharks swim.

Later you will enter a glass tunnel so you see the fish all arround you. My pictures failed, so I can't show the Manta that is also nice.

So if you are in Holland and have time enough, go one day to "Burgers zoo" in Arnhem. Or to one of the other nice zoo's. Because if you like butterflies, you would do better visitting Emmen "Noorder dierenpark".

Raptors

Raptors are one of my favourite types of animals. They look very confident in everything they do, even when they fly away.

That is the problem for me since I don't have any high end zoom lens. So it's very hard to get close enough for a nice capture.

So I need to take my chances, when I get an opportunity once in a while. Most of the time in zoos or at bird shows.

This "Harris hawk" I saw at a birdshow, near an old water fortress. It is not a native species here in Holland, but she looks cool.

She was one of 5 birds at the show, but the other birds were more shy.

My favourite raptor will be, the "Philippine eagle" even though I haven't seen one in real life. So if somebody knows where I can see it, close to Manilla please post it in a comment.

 Nr2 on my list of Philippine raptors, is the "Brahminy kite". I did spotted one of those in the wild, when we just arrived at the "Chocolate hills" in Bohol.

The one we saw was flying and too far, to capture with my camera. But at least I saw one in the wild.

Later that day we saw three of them in captivity, at some the places with "Tarsiers".

The one on my pictures, is hold in a cage with the biggest python of Bohol.

The way they are kept, isn't as good as they deserve.

Well they still get enough food, otherwise their owners don't have anything to show tourists like me.

Because the storyteller, who went in to the python as a man and came out as a woman. Wouldn't be a good enough attraction to attract all the tourists.

At Palawan we didn't see any raptors in the wild. We saw kingfishers, egrets and manny crabs but no raptors.

But during our day tour, arround "Puerto princesa", we visited the Crocodile farm.

They don't have just crocodiles, but actually it is a small zoo. So if you ever go there, after the tour walk arround through the forrest behind it.

When I was there they had even a "Crested serpent eagle". This bird was not healthy enough to go back into the wild.

In one of the cages all the way in the back, we found the next bird.

The "Chocolate hawk owl" is a small hawk owl, which is commonly found in almost every island of the Philippines; ironically, except in Palawan.

There were a few of them in the cage, they weren't shy at all. This one was even posing for me.

Macro Holland

I love to shoot macro picture's because then the scope can be so much bigger. With my macro objective I can find so manny subjects in a small area.

Unlike with taking bird pictures when you have to search a wide area to find, a few species. With my macro objective I walk into the garden, and I can always find some species of insects.

Like here on the right this fly was sitting on one of the containers.

Offcourse I also go further away to spot different insects. But when I go to the park I can always spot some butterflies, grasshoppers or dragonflies.

On the left a male "Sympetrum vulgatum" the dutch name would be "Steenrode heidelibel - Stonered heatherdragonfly". When you see this one you wouldn't say red. But unlike the males the females have a nice red color.

We have 2 species that look a lot like each other, but you can tell by the legs. This species has black-yellow legs, the other one just black.

These dragonflies are always an interesting subject,

because of there complicated bodies.

On the right an other male "Sympetrum vulgatum",

this one was hanging frozen in the grass. I accidentally spotted this one, while looking for mushrooms.