Posbank nature park - in search of the tawny owl in rainy weather
Full screen gallery below
Time to take a break from work and do a stay over at the Posbank nature park. I stayed in a very nice hotel (Scandinavian look and feel) in the middle of the forest. The Posbank itself is situated in the middle of the Netherlands in a hilly part of that area with also a lot of heather in the fall. However this time around it was grey, wet and almost warm. For middle of winter this is weird, I guess climate change does exist (sarcasm).
I knew that there was a tawny owl in the neighbourhood because of many sightings. So off I went to look around the forest, looking high up in the trees (not high enough I later learned) but was unsuccessful. I decided to do a longer loop just to figure out what to do an maybe find the owl in a different way.
Wandering around I saw a couple of very loud black woodpeckers (Zwarte specht), but they were too far away for a decent photo. However there was a Great spotted woodpecker (Grote bonte specht) that was looking for food and was not distracted at all by the other woodpeckers. Still the grey weather did not help this photo, but I like it nonetheless.
Finishing my initial loop I got back to the place the tawny owl should have been, but you know birds, they tend to fly away. However I saw another photographer looking way high up in the trees, I thought that must be it. Spoiler, it was, haha. I was looking not high enough and totally missed the owl before. I literally was looking at that same tree an hour before. Goes to show that owl are very hard to spot.
Again not the best light, but still a very nice experience and in the meantime I also managed to get some other photos as well. So a well spend two days if you ask me, wet, tired, satisfied to be in nature! That was the biggest reward. The photos are cool, but can be much better, still really loved every minute in the nature park.
All shot with the Sony A1 and 200-600mm! And don’t hesitate to leave a comment or an e-mail. Click to view larger in a light box and navigate with mouse or arrow keys. Enjoy!
