The birds of Tiengemeten (5)

In the last blog about the birds of the Dutch island Tiengemeten I showed pictures of 7 bird species. That does not mean that I now have shown all the birds of Tiengemeten! These are the birds I succeeded in taking decent pictures of during the four days I stayed on the island.

Eurasian sparrowhawk; Sperwer ©GK

Eurasian sparrowhawk; Sperwer ©GK

Eurasian sparrowhawk; Sperwer ©GK

As always I had my camera ready when I am outdoors for a walk, but I was not really prepared for what happened next. It all happened so quickly. The whole thing was over in a minute. A bird of prey was attacked by some crows (I think) and the birds flew quite low over my head. I managed to take only 5 pictures. Three of the best are shown here. These are my first pictures of a Sparrowhawk.

Common kestrel; Torenvalk ©GK

Superficially, the Common kestrel and the Sparrowhawk (above) look very similar. But the Common kestrel is smaller and has a black spot under his eye (among other things). The Common kestrel is famous for its ability to stay in exactly the same position while hovering above the ground. Even during windy weather.

Common redshank; tureluur  ©GK

Difficult to spot? Only against this background! The Common redshank (tureluur) is a wary and noisy bird species. It is a common bird in The Netherlands (at least in the neighbourhood of water).

 

Eurasian skylark; veldleeuwerik ©GK

The skylark can only be detected when it sings high in the sky. Nearly invisible. Only in springtime. I made a lot of attempts before I got this picture. It is a bird of open areas, that is becoming rare in the Netherlands. But on Tiengemeten there are plenty of open areas.

 

Eurasian wren; Winterkoning ©GK

Most birds are actively singing in the early morning. That is also the moment to capture them on camera. This wren is no exception. It is a really powerful singer.

European herring gull; Zilvermeeuw ©GK

The European herring gull is a little bit smaller than the Lesser black-backed gull featured in part 3 of The Birds of Tiengemeten. The colour of the wings is light grey. This individual is tasting a few bits of a dead fish. I am not sure whether it tasted good. The same fish as the European herring gull in part 3. 

There are no fences on Tiengemeten:

In the background: Garganey; Zomertaling ©GK

Garganey; Zomertaling (detail)  ©GK

You can walk everywhere. The only barrier is water. Thanks to this lady I was so lucky as to capture a Garganey (Zomertaling). My first.

That's it for this series. Thanks for visiting this blog!