Birds

The bird on the right I saw at the beach from Texel, near the lighthouse. It was nice weather for a walk on the beach.

I brought my Olympus with the 135-400 mm Sigma and a tripod. Going there I thought I could spot some vessel at sea or some birds at the wave breakers.

But I saw this one walking in front of me, I quickley dropped my tripod on the sand. And took some pictures, before the bird walked behind the edge of the small dune.

The picture on the left, I have taken on a different beach of Texel called "de Slufter". Slufter means a small sea arm going into the land, in this case the water you see on the picture.

This picture I have taken with my, Olympus E-400 + Zuiko 70 -300 mm by hand. It might not be the most detailed shot, but the action is good enough for me.

The dive ended up with nothing, but the bird tried a few more times going down stream.

In Holland it's verry popular to do bird photography by car. You just drive between the fields to spot all kinds of birds.

This one posed nicely for me and my brother just a couple of meters from the car. Taken with my E-400, + Sigma 135-400mm from a bean bag on the door.

The bird didn't mind us at all, and stayed on the same spot so we left him like this.

Raptors part II

My other message about raptors ended at the Palawan crocodile farm. This one will start from there.

One of the birds they have, is a white bellied sea eagle. That is too injured to go back into the wild.

Even though it might not have the strength, as it should it have. It still looks as a powerfull bird.

The bird is injured at his wings so it can't fly anymore. Thanks to the crocodile farm, it still has an ok life.

For me it was still a hard picture to take, because his white belly reflected so much sun light.

The bird was too far away from me to use my flash, and I didn't brought any tripod with me.

But with some post processing I think I got the colors better.

I hope some time in the future I get the chance to re-take the picture.

Luckily I don't always have to go that far to see a raptor, or in this case an owl. This female forrest owl, was sitting in the park next to my house.

I was able to go back a few times to try for a better photo. Because it turned out, that the spot I was standing for this picture was right underneed her young ones.

So I was kinda lucky that she kept her claws to herself. It is one of the biggest owls we have here in Holland and also the most agressive species.

The Common Kestrel on the left, I spotted at Texel the biggest island in Holland. It was sitting on a sign, that tells you to not go further.

Behind the sign is a big breeding and resting area for birds. For this male it is also a hunting area, he has to share it with some Hen harriers.

He let me get close enough to take some decent shots, but he was aware and ready to fly away any moment. So after enough shots I walked away so he could stay at his overview point.

Big cats

I'm not a big fan off domestic cats, but the big ones I respect. The zoo I go most often too, is part of the european breeding program for cats.

They were also the first, to have White tigers in the Benelux. Instead of putting them behind bars, they are behind glass so you can come pretty close to them.

Still the picture on the left is taken through a fence. But the setting is a city of ancient.

In another part of "the city of ancient", you will find the Siberian tigers.

 At the moment, there are still a father and son. The mother is shipped to another zoo, for the breeding program. The tigers have a part where they can walk arround through the bushes and even have a small pool so they can drink.

Even behind glass they are pretty impressive, when they walk by. Here is one laying at an overview point.

This is an older picture from when the son, was still a kitten. It looked so cute, but now you don't wanna come close to it anymore.

A predator so advanced, it is a shame they are dissapearing from the wild.

At least this one is safe and has becoma a big cat.
Together with their neighbours, they get lots of attention.

White tigers really look cool, they even look like they are really nice.

They are a flaw of nature, that's why they are still rare. White tigers wouldn't surive that long in the wild, because of their color. Between all the jungle green, the white really stands out.

So you will find the white tigers only in zoo's all arround the world. They all originate from the same bengal tiger, but through out the years they kept breeding them.

They became my favorites at the zoo, but since it's always crowded infront of them. You can hardly take pictures of them.

All the pictures in this message are taken at the "Zoo Amersfoort", in Amersfoort, the Netherlands.

I came close to tigers, in Subic as well but I refused to go on a picture with a chained tiger. I hope more people do that, because it's not healthy that a top predator is afraid of a human.

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.

Macro Philippines

These are some of the macro pictures I took, in the Philippines. Since most of the birds that you see, in Antipolo are sparrows and pigeons.

I rather take my macro objective, to see some different wildlife. I still have a problem to get close to the butterflies, outside the butterfly garden. For some reason if you get within 3 meters they fly away.

Luckily I was able to get close to the small blue ones. I don't what species it is.

As you can see, they aren't camera shy at all. The picture on the left, shows mating butterflies.

From those to the one on the left with the darker wings is the female. The male on the right has some lighter colored wings.

In Antipolo you still have enough trees and bushes, so there are more insects to spot.

At the picture on the right, you see a Sweetpotato bug. Like the name already says it is mostly found at the sweet potato plant.

This one however is spotted at an egg plant. With some of it's friends. I never saw an insect like this before, so I was quite happy to take some photo's of it.

I guess I was the only one who was happy, because they turn out to be a pest. So if you have them on your veggies, you better get them away.

The picture on the left with the profile of the butterfly, is taken at the Palawan butterfly garden. We went on a day tour during our trip to Palawan.

Before we left, I didn't knew we would visit this one. So I brought 2 lenses but not my macro.

This picture is taken with a 70-300mm tele objective.
I is not a detailed full colored shot, but still I'm happy with this one.

The Palawan butterfly garden is a must go to, when you are at Palawan.