trip to Holland

For 2,5 weeks we were in Holland , in the meantime we are already back from Holland .
Next to visit family and friends, I had some time to see some birds.
In Holland  from 31th of May to 18th of June it is still a little bit spring , saw young birds, some birds making their second or even third nest, or maybe just their first nest.
The most birding I did was around Haarlem , west of Holland and a little bit in the center of Holland.
I am planning to bring more and more my camera, I forgot it a lot.
Fortunately I always have company of my Binoculars, those I never forget.
The highlights for me.... visit  the office of Audubon(vogelbescherming) Holland in Zeist. Finally , that was long time on my list. I am member again, I was that before Panama  a long time, I missed it.Also I tried out some scopes, as a lot of people know, I am not a scope person, they fall down...and break down. But I thought maybe a small
Then saw Storks nearby my old village Heesselt. Every year more and more.
Around our house boat that we rented,
http://www.bedandbreakfast.nl/bed-and-breakfast/6673 is a very nice nature reserve. I was up early almost every morning and was listening to and watching the birds, it's a really nice area.
http://vogelkijkhut.nl/vkh_info.php?id=385
I saw the blauwborst (Luscinia svecica) which is new in the area, never saw a sighting report of it .
Lepelaar - Platalea leucorodia
Slechtvalk-peregrine Falcon
And a lot of other great birds...another very nice one was (not a bird) a Fox (Vulpes Vulpes). He was staring at me and was sitting on his but. For 5 minutes more or less we were watching each other , 10 meters more or less in between.
Then I moved a little bit and there he went.
This Fox killed a lot of chickens in the neighbourhood, so the people there have mixed feelings, for me it was great!
We went a few times to different areas in the Dunes around Amsterdam/Haarlem.
A special place is the Dunes, was to hike in the area where Hans and I had long hikes and conversations when we were 18/20 years old.
http://www.waternet.nl/themas/amsterdamse-waterleidingduinen/tab3
Amazing was , that the area is changed, in those days in our minds only dunes sand and grass, now it was a lot of forest.
Saw Deer.
Amazing was how silent it was , so close to the airport and Amsterdam, it was nice to sit on benches and eat cherries!!
Not too much birds, but it was special.
A trip to our friends in Heesselt who live in our old house. We did build it(1986). The property is in total 4000m2 , for Holland quit big.
It is still very special for us and great to see that our friends are really thinking the same as we did, wild garden en forest. We planted everything from little tiny tree, Planted a lot of old varieties , they live  a long time , but grow slower and a lot of new once, who have a short life , grow fast and will disappear when the old varieties get bigger.
And that is now going to happen , great to see. We saw and heard a few young Owls and parent(strix Aluco)
I will add some pictures of my Holland trip.



our houseboat

feeding the Ducks

2011 was a good year for Ducks.
Warm and sunny days in the spring
 and a lot of food for the fish and other predators ,
 so a lot of little ducks survived

in the Kayak ,
picture taken out of the window of the houseboat

in the Dunes with cherries

Happy Terry in Audubon garden, trying out scopes
, will this be my new Nikon scope?
Nice and handy to take with me .....

on the grounds of the Audubon office in Zeist,
they have a great bird feeder


This is the area where we lived  in Holland before Panama
The bird: Ooievaar (Ciconia ciconia):

This is the garden of our former house in Holland
,with the forest in the back