Somehow I also got some free motivation delivered with my new camera (Canon R5) and new telelens (Canon RF 100-500mm). When I was home between trips, I usually couldn’t be bothered with going out in the Netherlands, apart from an occasional birding or dragonfly trip. But with my new combination, I’ve been out almost every day.

So, now I’m back into bird photography in the Netherlands (at least until the dragonflies start flying around again), first thing I had to do was to find a nice local patch. For the non-birders/bird photographers: a local patch is an area within a few km of your home, where it’s easy to get to when you’ve got a few hours to spare. And because it’s this easy to get to, you can spent quite a lot of time there, which will mean you’ll get to know the area and the animals, which will result in better sightings and photographs. Well, for me this choice was an easy one. Like I wrote in my Bluethroat-post, right next to my hometown is a really nice nature reserve, de Onlanden.

As this area has large parts of reed marshes, at the moment I’m mainly focussing on the reed birds that are now returning from their wintering grounds in Africa. At the moment they are mostly Sedge and Savi’s Warblers that are most common. It’s a nice game with these birds to find them between the reed beds, as they’re often singing from concealed positions in the reeds. But sometimes I get lucky and does one show himself nicely and even seems to pose for a picture.