Kor Bosch

@korbosch

Wildlife & history

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Kor Bosch@korbosch· 17d

Two honey buzzards (wespendief) circled overhead today. That these birds of prey evolved to favour a diet of wasp larvae found through watching and listening which they get to by digging with their claws makes them, to me, one of the most fascinating raptors we get here. #birds

A honey buzzard in flight, seen from below. From this angle it is mostly brown and white, with a coarsely striped body and in this case light striping on the wings and tail. Most noticeable of all are its very differently shaped head, which is more narrow and elongated, like a pigeon's, and its clear clear yellow eyes. This individual appears to have a grey head, a sign that this is a male bird.

Kor Bosch@korbosch· 21d

A couple years ago I got the Lynx "All the Birds of the World" book, with all the world's birds in a single volume, possible only by fitting many of them onto each page. Sometimes I leaf through it and it's always a joy, but not many pages have as spectacular a layout as this one does!

Page 121 of "All the Birds of the World", showing various species of nightjars. There's 10 individual species on the page in all, but most striking is the fact that two of them, with a body otherwise comparable to the rest, have extraordinarily long tails - in fact that of the lyre-tailed nightjar can be three times its body length and consequently the tail cuts across half the page!

Kor Bosch@korbosch· 22d

Low water levels at the Arnhem Nieuwe Haven today. The sandy floor of the Rhine is seldom exposed like this, and as we still have a fair amount of summer left it's likely to reveal more of its secrets soon.

Photograph from a fifth floor window showing the Nieuwe Haven of Arnhem at the front and the Rhine / Nederrijn running behind it. At the water's edge the sandy river bed is exposed, followed by a line of rocks, followed by the grassy soil of a peninsula that is often host to friendly cows*

*Friendly cows may have been involved in storming the Westervoort bridge once

Kor Bosch@korbosch· 25d

Cycled up the dike today and the first thing I saw was a huge white-tailed eagle (zeearend) fly towards me, before it slowly spiralled up higher and higher into the air, then drifting off east. It didn't flap its wings once. Such impressive creatures! #birds

A white-tailed eagle in flight. It is a huge mostly brownish bird (with some lighter flecks) with a large yellow bill and talons. One of its legs is ringed, although the number couldn't be made out on the photographs. The tail feathers are white fringed with brown, which indicates this bird is not yet an adult (which have fully white tails) but more likely a third calendar year juvenile. The bird has a particularly stern expression.

Kor Bosch@korbosch· 28d

It remains remarkable the extent to which the red-backed shrike (grauwe klauwier) has taken off in the region over the past seven or so years - from 0 to over 30 pairs! They are not shy: this male sat right along the path and didn't budge. A great addition to the Ooijpolder! #birds

A red-backed shrike sitting on a bare, thorny branch. It has a brownish red back, a grey cap and a black stripe running over its eyes, with a white chin below it. It has a fairly long tail which it was constantly wagging up and down like a wagtail, as well as sideways, which was quite amusing to see. The tail is mostly black with a white fringe.

Kor Bosch@korbosch· Jul 13

Come on, you can fly at 100 km/h, you could at least look like you're having a good time! Very grumpy looking common swifts (gierzwaluw) speeding along above the Oude Waal, with crops full of insects. #birds

A common swift in flight. A dark, sickle shaped bird. It appears to have an enormous round chin, but that's actually its crop. which it's filling up to feed its young.

Kor Bosch@korbosch· Jul 11

A family of blackbirds visited my garden. This curious juvenile, still a little fluffy, posed on the fence for a bit, before it came down to look for food in the grass. #birds

A juvenile blackbird on a fence. Juvenile blackbirds are various shades of brown, with more light brown elements than female blackbirds have. There is also still some yellow at the base of the bird's bill.

Kor Bosch@korbosch· Jul 10

A white stork (ooievaar) standing on top of a lamp post along a cycle path, one of numerous storks I saw here. It wasn't bothered by passers by - here it was looking down at a cyclist. #birds

A white stork - a large bird with long red legs, a red bill, and white plumage apart from the border of its wings, white are black - on top of a lamp post. The bird is leaning slightly forward so it can look down.

Kor Bosch@korbosch· Jul 3

Always nice to see a beaver, in this case in a canal in a residential neighbourhood here in Nijmegen. The many canals have made it a suitable habitat for them, so this is not a rare sighting. (Terrible phone pic, didn't have my camera on hand)

A canal with a beaver swimming in it. On the other side of the canal a row of houses can be seen.

Kor Bosch@korbosch· Jun 30

I can see the likeness! Child and parent oystercatcher (scholekster), posing. #birds

Two oystercatchers in a field of yellow flowers, standing side by side with their side in my direction and their heads facing sideways, to my left. They have a white belly and chest and a black head, neck, back and wings (mostly). Their bills are long, pointy and red, and the juvenile has a dark while the adult's eye is bright red with a black pupil. Their reddish legs are obscured by the flower bed.

Kor Bosch@korbosch· Jun 29

Also, if you think eating a blackberry is a simple affair, you'd be mistaken! #birds

The garden warbler bites into a drupelet from a blackberry to pull it off.

The blackberry drupelet is uncooperative and the garden warbler is twisting its head and flapping its wings as it pulls on its intended food.

Kor Bosch@korbosch· Jun 29

Yesterday I discovered a juvenile garden warbler (tuinfluiter), who had in turn discovered the first ripe blackberry on a bramble bush. Without any concern for me, it carefully stripped away and enjoyed a few bulbs. #birds

A garden warbler, perhaps the most little brown bird of all the little brown birds, holds aloft in its beak a round drupelet pulled off a blackberry as it flaps its wings. Its feet grip on to a stem and an unripe blackberry, its tail rests on a leaf. This bird has virtually no identifiable features - it is brownish, its legs and bill are dark but not black, its underside is a little lighter than the top but noremarkably so, it has no eye stripe and only a subsdued eye ring. Nevertheless, it is incredible to see it in action.

Kor Bosch@korbosch· Jun 27

Heard a noise in the garden last night and it turned out I had a cute little visitor - my first garden hedgehog!

A hedgehog beside the shed in my garden, approaching a water bowl (which I refilled)

Kor Bosch@korbosch· Jun 25

Ontdekte zelf deze week een huismoederpop in de tuin, zelfde formaat en vorm. Wel donkerrood.

Kor Bosch@korbosch· Jun 21

Told my friend we had a good chance of seeing honey buzzard (wespendief) at the spot I'd picked for our walk, and of course my birding promises rarely fail. Two different individuals showed up, and despite the weather being terrible for photography (too sunny) I got a passable shot. #birds

A honey buzzard in flight. It is superficially similar to a regular buzzard in shape, with a longer head and neck with an almost pigeon-like head with cartoonish dark yellow eyes with black pupils. Its underside is more stripey than a regular buzzard's, its tail a little longer

Kor Bosch@korbosch· Jun 17

Not a sharp photograph at all but I did enjoy seeing this red squirrel (rode eekhoorn) make a graceful hop last weekend. #mammals

A red squirrel mid-jump as it hops through the grass, with a long, bushy tail and fluffy ears.

Kor Bosch@korbosch· Jun 13

A whimbrel (regenwulp) on Schiermonnikoog, back in april. The sun was slowly disappearing behind the sea wall and only the bird's head was still fully illuminated by its light. When the tide is high, this is a good place to find them. #birds

A whimbrel - a wading bird with long legs and a long bill. It is similar to the curlew, but a little smaller and with a shorter bill that's less curved.

Kor Bosch@korbosch· Jun 10

Only one downside: a section on a now extinct Jamaican ibis losing the ability to fly and instead growing its arms into clubs to defend itself and/or fight off rivals had no illustration, so I had to imagine the creature for myself.

Crude cartoonish drawing of an ibis with clubs for hands knocking another on the head

Kor Bosch@korbosch· Jun 10

As someone without a background in paleontology I found the sections that detail the slow, accidental evolution towards birds ending up looking and acting as they do, growing feathers, beaks, and wings, to be the most fascinating of all. Extremely engaging. A great read if you're not out birding!

$Technically unrelated but I felt I needed to add a bird image, and what better than this one of a black guillemot throwing its catch of a crab in the air? The book taught me most birds alive today, belonging to the neognaths infraclass (which includes the black guillemot seen here), share a more mobile palate, which has turned their beak into a much more effective tool.$

Kor Bosch@korbosch· Jun 10

Finished this by @stevebrusatte.bsky.social today and loved it, as a birder and a historian. Tells the story of how birds came to be, how they function, but also how scientists figured this all out. A great example of popularising research without dumbing it down too much. #birds

Book cover of "The story of birds" by Steve Brusatte

Kor Bosch@korbosch· Jun 10

A grasshopper warbler (sprinkhaanzanger) caught in song on Schiermonnikoog in April. These can be tricky birds to photograph, but I discovered plenty of sites where they were active and then staked out one of them in the morning, with favourable light. #birds

A grasshopper warbler singing from the top of a dead bush. It produces a grasshopper-like sound, which explains the name.

Kor Bosch@korbosch· Jun 8

Een geoorde fuut baby op de rug van de ouder

Kor Bosch@korbosch· Jun 7

Another one from my fighting wrens (winterkoning) series - they couldn't even agree on which side was up! #birds

Two wrens are locked in combat. The left bird is with its head on the ground, its tail pointing up, whereas it's the opposite (more logical way around) for the other bird. Both are aggressively flapping their wings, try to peck at their opponent's lower half and defend against this happening to them with their claws. They perfectly balance each other out, making it difficult for either to break free.

Kor Bosch@korbosch· Jun 7

It can be easy to overlook "common" birds when you're out birding. This time of year the common whitethroat (grasmus) is pervasive on every walk or bike ride, but it's worth stopping from time to time to admire them, as they're still remarkable! #birds

A common whitethroat sits in the top of a plant. It has a fluffy white throat that stands out like a beard and a dark grey cap, but most remarkable is is its eye: a black pupil in a reddish brown iris, surrounded by a white eye ring, which makes it really stand out. It has a buff breast which slowly fades into a white belly, and a brown back. The bird is singing.

Kor Bosch@korbosch· Jun 6

After the battle, one of the victorious geese showed off the fluffy hair it had pulled out off the hare as it ran away, but the other goose thought this was gross and did not want to see it. #birds

All the baby geese have been herded together into a group. One Canada goose has a beak full of hare hairs and shows this to another goose, who is demonstratively looking away.

Kor Bosch@korbosch· Jun 6

A hare (haas) was happily running along the canal when it ran through two families of Canada geese (Canadese gans). The geese did not appreciate the intrusion. #birds

Two very angry Canada geese chase after a hare, wings flapping and screaming at it, while the other two Canada geese (only one of which is visible) herd together their young in a defensive formation. The hare tries to run off into the vegetation

Kor Bosch@korbosch· Jun 6

Ohja, ik had nog foto's! Meestal bungelen die staart, poten en kop dus niet zo als hier, maar lijkt hun bidden meer op dat van een torenvalk, die de staart en het lichaam meer horizontaal houden. Wel heel grappig om te zien.

Een biddende buizerd, met hangende kop, staart en poten. De staart is gespreid.

Kor Bosch@korbosch· Jun 6

Icterine warbler (spotvogel) can be difficult. They show up late in spring, sing high up in a tree or, more often, from cover, and often disappear the moment you've noticed them. But this bird has been quite accommodating, singing low in a willow tree along a path, often in full view. #birds

A fairly large warbler in a willow tree, yellowish from its chin to the underside of its tail, brownish on its back, tail and cap. Its bill also stand out, which is strong and more orange than usual. The bird sits on a branch and looks around.
The Dutch name spotvogel translates to "mocking bird", as this bird, too, is exceptionally good at imitating the calls of other birds. It can easily confuse Merlin with imitations of oystercatchers for instance, but incorporates them into its varied tapestry of sounds that also include what seem to be imitations of a squeaky duck.

Kor Bosch@korbosch· Jun 5

A great spotted woodpecker (grote bonte specht) and his kid made their way to my garden today. They sat on the fence and whenever the dad wanted to move past his child he pecked at it and the young bird swivelled down to the side of the fence. No gentle parenting among woodpeckers! #birds

A fence with two great spotted woodpeckers on it. An adult male bird sits on top, flapping his wings and shouting at the juvenile bird, who is dangling down the side and looking up at their parent.

Kor Bosch@korbosch· Jun 4

I was very happy to be inside a building today.