Pond bats

I am suffering from an infleunza virus, that's why I couldn't comply with my weekly schedule for this blog.

Like all nature photographers I regularly have to rely on the expertise of ecologists and researchers to get the shots I want. This was also the case when I wanted to visit the wintering roosts of Pond bat Myotis dasycneme. Pond bat is a species listed in the Natura 2000 annex. Its range expands in a rather small band from Western europe into Russia, with the Netherlands having the largest population. One of my colleagues was so kind to take me on one of his annual censuses in a coastal bunker complex of the Atlantic Wall. Here he is searching for bats behind a double wall inside one of the bunkers.

Cheers,

Niels

White emptiness

I noticed from the highway that the area around Terlet had much more snow cover than the rest of the region and that it had not suffered from thaw. The morning I planned my phototrip to it was perfect: thick fog covered the white landscape in a grey blanket. It created a mystified atmosphere with no colours, no horizon, no sky, no animals and no human......emptiness all around me......

Cheers,

Niels

Happy 2009!

Last year ended in freezing conditions and it pulled me to the north of the country. In Friesland you can witness the phenomenon of the 100-thousands of geese wintering in The Netherlands. They roost on the numerous lakes and feed on the nutrient rich pastures. Every morning they take off and in the evening they return to their roosts.....in flocks of thousands. This photo is like the 'silence before the storm', as the geese, barely visible in the distance, have not yet lifted off from the frozen lake.

I wish you all a happy, inspiring and healthy 2009!

Niels