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...

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...

Florida 2010 – IX – Sebastian Inlet State Park

Everglades National Park in the South, the city of Fort Myers and its surroundings in the West and Merritt Island in the East of Florida ar by far the most famous areas for birding and bird photography in the sunny state. Besides these there are tens of other spots in Florida – usually smaller areas with less visitors but these are as well worth the visit! In fact there are so many places in Florida that one could spend several years there and would not get bored at all! – to explore all birding spots and habitats in different seasons would probably take one human life. One of the less known places I would like to present is Sebastian Inlet State Park on the eastern coast of Florida...

Being birder for two days

I am not a birder neither an expert in birds but I had the chance to try out how it feels to be a birder during my trip to Netherlands. We had planned to visit the Dutch island Texel at the beginning of May this year – meeting with Pali, Evzen and Ondra was planned for Monday so I could spend two days in the northern part of Netherlands in the Fiesland area...

Vultures of southern USA

The photographers ignore them, the locals do not like them either, they are not overly beautiful birds but they are irreplaceable helpers – nature cleaners. Who do we talk about? About Vultures, raptors that you can see very often when you visit southern states of USA…

Florida 2010 – VIII – Little Estero Lagoon

If you ever happen to plan a birding trip to Florida and will search for the best spots on internet, one of the most often name found will certainly be Little Estero Lagoon. As the name says, it is quite small lagoon at the coast of the Gulf of Mexico close to Fort Myers. There is a lot of great birding spots around Fort Myers (Sanibel Island or Cape Coral Burrowing Owls to name the most famous) so you might wonder why this small “pond” should be amongst the best places, especially when it is located right next to the Fort Myers suburb and the area around is very busy as the passers by hurry up to the neighbouring Fort Myers beach all the time…

Florida 2010 – VII – J.N.D. Darling and chilly tropics

The title came to my mind when I had recalled the weather during my trip to Florida in January this year. The temperatures that usually reach 20 degrees Celsius in this southern state of USA during January went down to the freezing point obviously affecting all the inhabitants of the Sunny State – The TV broadcasted news about iguanas falling down from the trees and I had to laugh when I saw a man exploring the cat-ice on the road. Much more severe consequences were visible in J.N. Ding Darling Nature reserve at Sanibel Island...

Florida 2010 – VI – Florida`s woodpeckers

Woodpeckers and their relatives are beautiful birds from Piciformes Order that we can see in diverse forms all around the world. In our European longitudes they are unfortunately quite shy and thus to make a picture of the Woodpecker is rather a matter of coincidence. I repeat again that birds in Florida are easily approachable and this applies to Woodpeckers I have seen there too...

Florida 2010 – V – Waders – not a simple task!

It will only be short this time, I have nothing special to write about and my head is now engaged with other project (will hopefully be announced soon). I was really looking forward to processing pictures of Florida waders – those are my favourite birds and there are plenty of them in Florida – what a joy! After picking out the best pictures (for me) there are still 29 photos “suitable for publishing” so I have to do the selection once again, not very simple indeed!...well it will be more about pictures than the stories today but who cares about stories :-)...

Florida 2010 – IV – Osprey, Florida`s fisher

When I made a list of articles in which I would like to present my pictures from Florida trip, I came to a point of which bird should I call a “fisher”? – Osprey or Pelican that usually acts as a fisher in animated movies and that can be seen everywhere in Florida skimming above the water and rushing down to catch the fish prey? It was Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) at the end, the elegant raptor that patrols high above the water to suddenly dive for a fish below...

Florida 2010 – III – Wakodahatchee, all in one

Florida 2010 – II – Pelican the bomber

In the older article I said the abundance of Anhinga in Florida can be compared to Mallard in Europe but what can I say about Pelican that you will almost certainly see on every beach of Florida? It will do to stick to the fact that Pelican is very common and abundant species in Florida and my comparison to a bomber is quite clear when you realize that most often you will see single birds as well as flocks of Pelicans numbering tens of individuals hovering low above the beach and this all – the large body with wide-spread wings cutting smoothly through the wind gusts - make you feel like a fleet of enemy bombers will attack you in a moment...

Florida 2010 – I – Anhinga, the snakebird

I got excited when I learned last year I would have a chance to spend a little time in Florida at the end of the year 2009. In the same moment I recalled the beautiful bird pictures of Ondra Prosicky and I started to gather any useful information and to get ready for the adventure. The whole trip was a business journey but you always get some time to spend with the birds, but this is not what I wanted to talk about...

Scottish landscape - Islands

It is a begining of November, it is cold and rainy outside and I am sitting in front of my computer looking through that heap of pictures from our May-June trip (honneymoon) to Scotland. I am looking at the pictures from the Scottish islands and strange feelings overwhelm me; the songs from the Pink Floyd album Dark Side of the Moon just sketch in my mood and I realize why such a odd but beautiful music got its birth right here, in Great Britain...

Colorful landscape of Scotland I