Servee Wijsen - Nature Photography

It's always great to watch and photograph animals with their young. But I usually stay clear of going close to nests and feeding animals because I think you should NEVER disturb them especially not when feeding their offspring. This Great Spotted Woodpecker excavated its nest just one meter above ground in a tree right next to a crossing of a cycle path, a horse-riding track, and two walking paths. If you don't have an eye for it you won't even see it and the Birds don't mind people passing by at close range. But if you stand still near the nest, they immediately call alarm. So sitting there was NOT an option. Still this photo was taken from about 3 meters away. I waited for the parents to fly off to get food, installed the camouflaged camera on a tripod behind a tree, flicked the mirror up to reduce sound, hand focussed on the hole, and sat 30 meters away with binoculars and a wireless remote to take the shot. The Woodpeckers kept feeding undisturbed and came back to the nest with food every 10 minutes...

...at least on this bush. In the month of june Roe Deer like to feast on the Yellow flowers of Broom brushes, which are flowering abundantly here in heathlands. You just have to find the right spots with nice background and lighting and get your timing right.

Roe Deer just love the flowers of the yellow Broom brushes which provide a great picture frame. The animals are quite familiar with me because I frequently walk around here with my camera. As long as I move slowly and don't make to much noise, some of them allow me to get quite close :-)

Ree - Roe Deer just love the yellow flowers of the Broom bushes. So you can be sure to find them here :-)

It's always exciting to wait until after sunset to see how the light changes. This time the cloudless sky turns a subtle pink and all I needed was the Roe Deer as a subject in front of the Oak tree. It looked up and stood still just long enough to get it sharp...:-)

Another one of the Roe Deer after sunset. Some more contrast in the sky here and a little movement, which I actually like.

Once in a while you get lucky if you're prepared to go out often, get to know the animals and their habitat, be patient and be there at odd times. I envisioned this photo in my head a long time ago. This is a place frequented by Roe Deer. But they never seemed to be there at the right time. The photo was taken 40 minutes after sunset probably the only small hill in the area that obscures the horizon. Just enough light from the sun was left to color the sky red. Perfect for a silhouette :-) Hi ISO and slow shutter speeds were needed, but that's why you drag your heavy tripod with you all day :-)

It's fun enough to shoot nice pictures but the challenge is in finding special moments. The low evening sun can be a great help and makes you see things differently and ads some tension to the shot. The red spot in the foreground is caused by the sun flaring in the lens. The last rays of the sun light up the contours of this Roe Deer buck.

This Buzzard had spotted me well before I'd seen it even though I was a 100 meters away. It gave me just enough time to snap this picture as it kept an eye on me before it took off...

As I checked the number on the ring (not seen in this picture) it turns out that White Stork NLA 2E302 was ringed 311 days ago today and and was 28 Kilometers away from the nest where it was born when I took this photo. I don't know if it left the country, and migrated south because some birds do stay here, but at least it survived it's first winter, which only very few birds do. Storks are typically ringed at about the age of 5 weeks when their legs don't grow any thicker, so this bird is just a couple of weeks away from it's first birthday...

Pretty bird this one. The Common Redstart, this one is a male, likes old varied forest areas with open spaces on sandy soil with plenty of trees with woodpecker holes to breed in...

I'll bore you with yet another Roe Deer Portrait. A different animal but also very close in nice soft evening light :-)

Another portrait of the same Roe Deer taken one day later. As the sun was just about to set I was sitting on the ground by the fence watching birds on the field as I caught some movement int he corner of my eye. This fellow sneaked up un me from behind and was standing about 6 meters beside me checking out a spot to step through the barbed wire. I slowly turned my camera and it looked straight into the lens. Then it slowly walked along the fence completely at ease to fiend the right spot to cross several meters away. :-)

Same Roe Deer was kind enough to let me shoot this portrait :-)

Roe Deer posing.. They seem to be occupied with eating, grooming and recuperating from the long cold winter so much that they don't even mind me being so close :-) This one is so skinny I could count it's ribs...

Male Roe Deer staring at me to check if I don't get to close. It doesn't seem to mind much and I can get to about 10 meters before it slowly retreats. It seems to have some kind of eye disease which I've seen before with Roe Deer. Roe Deer don't have a well developed eyesight, they only recognize large objects, but can detect movement very well. And it sure knows I'm there. It cannot see me if I keep absolutely still, but it can smell me from 400 meters away and he can hear the camera clicking just fine. So I'm just lucky here to be tolerated :-)