Most of the spare time this weekend went into making a slideshow for my lecture in the Museon next Sunday, but I did manage to get out a few hours. A sunny day was predicted, but I should have known better. When I arrived before dawn at the fishing ponds, grey skies dominated and the sun did not even try to break through. So much for my planned landscape photography session and thus I mounted the big lens and went to look for birds and mammals. I only found the regular Coots, Geese and Swans but even they can present great opportunities. My best shots of the day were created very early, when the color of the light was still bluish and shutter speeds were slow. Enough Geese, Swans and Cormorants were flying by and coming in to practise my technique.
When it got brighter, I decided to research the complete area for future purposes and took a long and heavy walk around the ponds. I travelled the paths less walked, crawled under bushes and fallen trees and fought my way through deep mud. All with the heavy rig on my shoulder, a good workout. On my way, I found a lot of Wild Boar tracks, but never got to see one in real life. But at least now I know where they seem to spend a lot of their time. Also, I found no less than 10 fresh fox kills, consisting of fluffy heaps of feathers, in better times attached to Coots, Geese and Swans. All of them were topped off by a fresh and steaming sample of smelly fox excrement. I know there are several foxes that make a decent living in the area, but I rarely if ever get to see them. I always seem to be one step behind and all I get are musky and pointy turds in a bouquet of down and feathers. About time I get my revenge!
Greylag Geese; Canon 5D Mark III w. 500/4L IS; 1/8s at F4 and ISO1600; tripod
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