It’s supposed to be winter…. Where the last two winters were uncharacteristically cold for the Netherlands, with lots of snow, this year we’ve got our normal warm and wet winter again. Well, it’s even a bit too warm for a normal winter. But it rains a lot, it’s grey and dark, not the ideal weather for photographers.

Last week there was one day with at least a little sun, so I decided to go for a walk through the largest forest of the Netherlands, de Veluwe. Halfway I found this scene, reminding me more of early spring as of the middle of winter. For the larger animals a winter like this isn’t too bad. There is still quite a lot of food available to them. For insects it’s less good. The relative warmth and high humidity give fungi a good chance to grow and infect wintering insects.