Friday, June 26, 2015

Texel May 2015

Hi,

 still too long between posts, and I am afraid this blog will never take off.



Anyway, I have been in Texel at the end of May, three days hoping for the same good weather I got in April, and more birds. Neither of the two, unfortunately. Weather was not bad, but I did not get the super light I was lucky enough to get in April. Three days: half sunrise and zero sunsets.

Texel is still the place to go for bird photography in the Netherlands, but the dynamics of the island changed in the past two years.

The wagejot is not the incredible photography site that it was, since avocets and terns do not nest anymore in the small shells-island few meters off the banks where it is possible to stay for photos. Avocets will still pass pretty close but not as frequently. Terns are nesting far away so basically there are none at photo-distance.



Nearby Wagejot there's another location which is interesting: Ottersaat. It's a nesting site for terns, mostly and avocets, the nests are not very close (interesting photos can be taken with a 700-900mm equivalent lens) but it's very nice to take in fly photos of terns, and also avocets. I spent few hours both mornings trying to do my best with flying birds.






Waalenburg is as always good locations for godwits.




In the south, this year a couple of bluethroats, male and female, nested very close to the road (Molkweg) so I spent half of my time in Texel, sitting in the area taking picture of them going back and forth to feed their offspring.





The south of the island is interesting also for flying spoonbills, who in the evening can be spot as they go back to their nests. Mind you, it's not like there are flocks of spoonbills flying back and forth over you :) But if you want to see and phograph them I would suggest to go there around 4pm and stay at least for a couple of hours, probably you will see two or three groups of spoonbills flying to their nests. There are two observation points, a little bit above-ground where it may be easier to see the birds. I personally took some photos while waiting for the bluethroat.



End of May is also a very good moment for the wild orchids, I have seen *a lot* of them while driving around De Staart for the godwits, unfortunately in protected areas. I found some nearby the road just south of the Airport, on the left side (going south). If you find them, please be very careful not to damage neither them nor the area around them.



As always, I had a lot of fun in Texel but a little more luck with the weather and the birds would have made it even better. Two years ago the situation was better, more birds and closer. Nature changes continuously, therefore it is foolish to think that animal habits would stay the same between years. But I hoped it, I must admit :-)





For my future trips there, I really want to go for a boat-trip to visit the seals colonies, during a low tide, again this year I was not lucky, the only trip feasible for me was sold out :(

As always, comments and questions are welcome.

Regards
 Peter

0 Comments:

Post a Comment