Ackerdijkse Plassen (2)

Something a little more ethereal.

Ackerdijkse Plassen

I went for a bike ride this evening around the Ackerdijkse Plassen in the hoping of finding some birds to photograph.  Unfortunately, two of the three bird hides were closed, and the remaining observation post didn't have anything much to offer.  I did however have some fun trying to photograph a  distant bird of prey (buzzard?), some swifts/swallows (about as successful as you'd expect, given how small, and well, swift, they are), and a couple snoozing grebes.  In the end, though, the best photo was of a frog, when I was on my way back.

The ride wasn't quite as tranquil as I'd hoped, as there was an almost constant stream of (racing) bikes zooming by.  My grebe photographing experience was a little ruined by the backdrop of a couple arguing, and bizarrely one cyclist swore at me for 'not leaving the birds alone'.  Given that the bird in question was a passing cormorant, I didn't really see his point.

Texel - Avocets

Zandvoort aan Zee to Katwijk

This weekend's walk was in the opposite direction from last week's, south along the coast from Zandvoort aan Zee to Katwijk, with a small detour through the Nordwijkerhout along the way.  Unfortunately, having taken the Garmin along with me and recorded the route, I managed to wipe it out in my relief at reaching Katwijk at the end.  Fortunately not before I knew how far I'd walked - 25km.  As you can see, it was a typical grey, rainy day.

Choral Evensong - 19th June 2010

The last choral evensong before the summer break, just a shame about the football supporters and their annoying orange honking things during the prayers.  Needless to say, thanks to the World Cup, we were a couple singers down.

• Introit: Lord, For Thy Tender Mercy's Sake, Farrant/Hilton
• Responses: Oxley
• Psalm: 150, Stanford
• Canticles: Collegium Sancti Johannis Cantabrigiense, Howells
• Anthem: O Thou the Central Orb, Wood

Texel

This weekend I visited the island of Texel, off the north coast of The Netherlands, with Arie and Jules.  I still have quite some work to process all the photos (approx 1300), but here a couple taster shots of a kestrel (torenfalk).  We also saw plenty of godwits (grutto), avocets (kluut), sandwich terns (stern), common terns (visdief), gulls and oystercatchers (scholekster).

(I took these shots with the 300mm lens that Arie rented for the weekend, plus a 1.4x teleconverter.  Handheld, and quite heavily cropped)

PatentRun 2010

So, I had been planning to take part in this year's PatentRun, and at one point I'd even had ambitious plans of improving on my time from last year.  But it wasn't to be.  Instead, I took along the camera and photographed the event, getting soaking wet in the process.

Scheveningen to Noordwijk

After a few weeks hiatus, I resumed my training for the Nijmegen Vierdaagse today with a walk through the dunes from Scheveningen to Noordwijk, about 20.5km.

The weather wasn't ideal - muggy and overcast, and about halfway into the walk, very rainy.  For the sake of experimentation (and because I hadn't charged up my GPS watch) I only used the iPhone (with the MapMyRun app) to record the route... very effective, but it also drained the battery very fast, so I stopped recording at Katwijk.  By the time I arrived in Noordwijk and wanted to look up the bus information, the battery was completely dead.  Not the smartest idea, thus.

Choral Evensong - 5th June 2010

My first choral evensong for ages... and it wasn't really the most impressive.  I contributed to the overall effect by tripping over the words in the middle of the second reading, and forgetting that victuals are pronounced 'vittels' until a millisecond after I read it.  Idiot.

• Introit: Oculi omnium, Charles Wood
• Responses: Ebdon
• Psalm 121, Walford Davies
• Canticles: Moore's 3rd service
• Anthem: Here, O my Lord, Whitlock

The official photographer was along for the ride, to take some publicity shots for the choir.