Skywatch

Linking to "Skywatch Friday"
 

Oostvaarders Plassen

 On the road at the "Oostvaarders Plassen" not far from where we live.It is a big lake with lots of birds.

Lots of birds there.

Owl

A wooden owl seen at the watchtower at the "Oostvaardersplassen" I posted about yesterday. 

Hubby SC made a photo of me making a photo. That's how we keep each other busy ha,ha!
 

Shadow Shot

 At the Oostvaardersplassen, a nature reserve in Almere with heck cattle. You can watch them here at the other side of the water. Linking to "Shadow Shot Sunday 2"

Nature area

At the Oostvaardersplassen in Almere, a nature area with birds, heck cattle and deers. At this viewing point was not much of them to see.

Somebody had been very creative.

A very special building to have a drink and a view from above over the area.
Linking to "Our World Tuesday"

Oostvaardersplassen

When walking in the nature reserve of the Oostvaardersplassen dark clouds were coming from the left. When we heard some thunder rumbling we decided to return to the car.

This toad was on our path waiting for us to pass.

Linking to "Skywatch Friday" and "Camera Critters"

High in the sky

In the Oostvaardersplassen I saw a lot of birds flying in the sky.

Linking to Skywatch Friday

Oostvaardersplassen

Last Sunday we made a fantastic tour through the Oostvaardersplassen, a nature reserve in the Netherlands which is managed by the State Forestry Service. Covering about 56 square kilometres (22 sq mi), it is noted as an example of rewilding. I have made posts about this area before

 see here. These are Konik ponies.

This time we went with a guided tour in a little open bus, so you could have a good look at he animals as these Heck cattle.

At a certain moment the sun broke through the clouds which gave a beautiful sight at the landscape.

The tour was specially in the late afternoon to watch the red deers. This is the rutting season of the year and the males have to fertilize the females. The males make a special roaring sound, named belling.

Here you can see at the left a male with his big antler looking for a female.

The Heck cattle decided here to have a walk and blocked the road for our bus.

At a a certain moment they decided to run to the other side of the road in a long run together.

And stared at us strange people with their cameras.

In the end we had a beautiful sunset.

Have a look for more photos at the blog sccollections of hubby.

Oostvaardersplassen

With the beautiful weather still on we went for a walk at the Oostvaardersplassen not far from where we live.

This time we didn't see the cattle as close as last time but the the Barnacle Geese gave great performances with air shows every quarter of a hour. I don't know why they did, but with the binocular I discovered two foxes, so maybe they were disrupted.

The wind is always blowing here as you can see how the trees have grown.

Weekend Reflections

Birds flying in the Oostvaardersplassen in the Flevopolder. The reflection in the middle looks almost like a face with glasses and a moustache.

And another foggy picture with the trees.

See for more weekend reflections here.

Oostvaardersplassen

The Oostvaardersplassen is a nature reserve in the Netherlands which is managed by the State Forestry Service. Covering about 56 square kilometres (22 sq mi) it is noted as an example of rewilding. It is in the Flevopolder which was created in 1968, but in spite of the environment having little time to develop, by 1989 it had international importance as  a Ramsar wetland. We live in this polder since 1979 and have visited this area many times. There are wet and dry areas, before the establishment of the reserve the dry area was a nursery for willow trees and hundreds of seedlings. To avoid the reducing of the habitat for water birds, the park managers brought in a number of large herbivores to keep the area more open. In 2011 there were 1150 Konik ponies, 350 Heck catlle and 60 red deer.

Public is not allowed in the living area of the animals but there are walking path in the park where you can have a look with a binocular. We never saw an animal very close they were always far away, but last week we were very lucky. Walking the path along the water the whole livestock with hundreds of Konik ponies was right in front of us!

It was amazing to see the amount of animals.

With the zoom we could make such nice pictures of them.

They even posed closer where we had a better view .

After a while they suddenly decided to move on and like a slowly moving stream on the horizon.

Recently a movie has released about the Oostvaarderplassen which is a big hit here and I am going to watch this week. In the previous post you can watch the trailer.