I’m a killer! What about you…?

It is difficult to cope with things that happen the other ways around than you expect. Did it ever happen to you that you wanted to help somebody but you hurt instead? Do you like nature and want to keep it safe? Do you like birds and the last thing you want to do is to harm them? That is exactly what happens sometimes.

Avocets at Texel Island

Last winter, when I was considering spots to visit this year, the name Texel came to my mind – the island at the northern coast of Netherlands I remembered Juza did his wildlife gathering the year before at. I searched for some information on the internet and without hesitation I decided this could be my hotspot of this season. The reason was quite clear – where else in Europe and within close distance I could watch and photograph tame Pied Avocets (Recurvirostra avosetta)?

Rainy Runde 2010

Almost three full days out of four that I planned to spend with birds on the Runde Island in Norway have been in the name of rain. It was really bad luck because as it was the longest period of constant rain I had experienced so far this summer. Knut, the owner of the camp I always stay in, told me that when the hot days occupy my home Central Europe the bad weather usually strikes Runde area...

Gullfjell – the golden mountain

Gullfjell (987 m.a.s.l.) is the highest mountain and one of the best places to watch mountain and arctic bird species around Norwegian city Bergen. Gullfjell can be translated as “Golden Mountain” – I do not know where the original name comes from but maybe the author had the same experience as I had recently when I made the early morning birding trip up to that mountain slope lit by the golden light of the first sun beams and around the trails the Golden Plovers sang their piping songs...

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Unexpected encounter with Cuckoo

I have always admired photographs of Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) – it has always been a little mysterious bird that I only knew as a voice sounding from the depth of the forests. Also given the small number of pictures on the internet I thought that watching Cuckoo from close distance is one-in-life event. What happened during our trip to Dovre this year was better that all my previous expectations for this bird...

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Human – a friend or enemy?

Going north to south – trip to Dovrefjell (Norway)

I used this strange title to show how relative things are – if I was in my home country and drove from my home 150 km to the north, I would leave Southern Bohemia, cross the whole Central Bohemia and get to the North Bohemia. Here in Norway, if you drive from Bergen (which itself is some 8 hours drive north of the southernmost tip of Norway) 500 km north-east, you are still in Southern Norway and still far before reaching borders of Middle Norway! But I do not want to write about the local geography, I want to write about Dovrefjell and Fokstumyra nature reserve, which is one of the most famous birding spots in Norway...

Windmill at star night

Besides birds and tulips the boys had one another target of our trip to Dutch Texel Island – windmills! Our everyday programme on the Island had always the same scenario – waking up before six in the morning, rushing to the bird spot to catch the very first beams of the rising sun, breakfast, resting, exploring the Island, photographing birds during sunset, dinner and early “departure” to the bed to be fresh the next morning. One day we broke this scheme – Pali and Evzen found one very nice windmill close to our B&B and planned to go taking night shots with the star sky – I could not miss that opportunity and joined them...

Webcam – new residents

The roof of our University building hosts new inhabitants! After recent hatching of Oystercatchers (Haematopus ostralegus) new residents settled on the roof – two pairs of Lesser Black-backed Gull (Larus fuscus) and one pair of Common Gull (Larus canus). The webcam is not pointed at the Common Gull nest – two hatchlings are already born so do not forget to check the stream!

http://tjeld.uib.no/videoframe.html

Language confusion

Dutch tulips – color lunacy

I have never thought I would be photographing flowers as many ”wildlife” photographers do in these days. It is quite a long way from my geological background to botany and orchid found in the meadows does not excite me either; but what happened in Netherlands was a real blossom frenzy! Our trip to Netherlands (as I wrote in one of previous articles) was scheduled exactly into the time when the tulips – symbol of Holland - are in bloom...