Like my last post I am more enjoying cycling and taking the m43 kit with me. The flexibility and the enjoyment of getting to use that is quite a differentiator for me. Lets skip the whole full frame is better discussion and just shoot what you like!

A short blog as I picked up birding again after a epic summer break in California. The bucket list was checked in California, but more on that in the next posts. I just wanted to do some local birding again with summer ending. So I took the bike and the OM-1 and yes m43 still rocks! Can’t beat this combination for birding. Its compact and lightweight, but stil powerful and getting some nice shots.

Just before spring exploded, I visited a new area for me. Birding at Zouweboezem it was. It is known for its many diverse birds as this area is a bit of everything. Wet grasslands, reeds, trees and forest cover for the more skittish birds. So an ideal area for the start of spring, but it seemed that I was a bit too early.

A while ago just before spring we took a small break to go to Ibiza, just before all touristy stuff would break loose. Well that was the truth as not much was yet open. However it was very nice to visit the island and explore. The idea was to capture some birds on the main Island and to explore Formentera just below of Ibiza. That should have many birds and even flamingos.

A short one this time. I still have some cool macro photos, but with spring in full effect I could not resist to find some birds. This time it was not with the OM-System 150-400PRO but with the “oldie” Olympus 300PRO with the TC2.0. Still amazed on the resolution that the TC2.0 still gives you at a bizar 1200mm FF equiv.

I had the opportunity to go and do some up close bird photography of some interesting species last year. Yes this one is long in the making! It’s because I don’t exactly know what to think of the context I was in. Let me explain. I was at a falconer that had some birds for exhibition and some in care as a shelter. Basically they find birds from zoos, private people or otherwise that want to get rid of these birds. All in all a good thing, right?

So as in most of Europe it has been absolutely pouring with rain the last months. It started in October last year and with some breaks in between of a few days it has been constantly raining. Save to say we have enough water to go through another dry summer here. Anyway last weekend was sort of oke and finally took out the OM-System 150-400F4.5 pro again as I have not been using it a lot. I have some bird shelter photos coming as well with this lens, so stay tuned.

A week or so ago I was on a cycling trip to get to the top of Mont Ventoux. This was one of the main goals for cycling this year, together with two others, but again injury and fitness did not get me to the first goal. So this was a must reach goal. It started off unlucky with illness and medicine. In the end I did manage to get to the top, but it took a lot of perseverance and some curse words. The reward was worth it in the end. It was a lovely (maybe too hot) of a day.

In the previous blog I wrote about observing, to recap here is the reason and intent. The last weeks I am starting to discover more birds in my area, especially directly in the area where I live. Meaning the first patch of green you will encounter when leaving the house. With the help of the Merlin Bird app, especially the sound recording feature - which is mind-blowing - I discovered more birds than I thought I would. Especially the Treecreeper and the Common redstart.