Today we spotted a few teals, male and females. Teals (in Dutch: Wintertaling) are small dabbling ducks and especially the males have a beautiful color pattern. Their heads are chestnut coloured with broad green eye-patches, a spotted chest and a black-edged yellow tail. Females are mottled brown.

The first photo shows a teal couple enjoying the few hours of sun one can get during wintertime. On the left the male and on the right the female teal.




Here you can see very clearly the chestnut coloured head and the broad green eye-patches. Also the spotted chest is clearly visible.




And this photo shows the black-edged yellow tail which really is an eye-catcher. Just lovely small ducks to watch.

Today we watched a Kestrel trying to catch some food on this rather cold and breezy Christmas Day (yep ... in the Netherlands we have 2 Christmas days). This time we had brought along our birding scope and managed to get some pictures.



Kestrels are most easily distinguished by their typical hunting behaviour, which is to hover at a height of around 10–20 m over open country and swoop down on prey. Their prey consists out of small mammals (mice, voles), large insects, frogs, earthworms and sometimes small birds.



A Kestrel does not make its own nest. It merely accepts sites in church towers, old windmills or hollow trees or nest boxes set up by humans.
Even deserted nests of other birds are sometimes used.



We hope to show you some pics of a Kestrel’s nest next summer, as they are breeding in a nest box just nearby.

In former times winters in the Netherlands were long and cold. Nowadays, due to global warming, we are presented with warmer winters, with lots of wind and rain. But last week we had a short cold wave bringing cold clear nights and beautiful bright skies during daytime. One day we woke up to find a frosted landscape. Here are some pictures to enjoy.

The sun just came up behind the trees, trying to warm us up a bit.



After walking through the fields, we came across a small forest, and oh my... an astonishing view it was. All the trees were covered in frost and it all looked like a fairytale. Please enlarge underneath pictures by clicking on them.


As you can see from underneath pictures it was really a winter wonderland. And remarkably not many people were up. All running around like a madman to get all the groceries in for the upcoming Christmas days, to buy the last Christmas presents and you name it. We just enjoyed the views presented to us.



One more picture to finish this winterfeeling.




O....nope....here is just one other picture. Taken by our parents, who live about 200 kms away from us. They even had more frost than we did.
Sometimes it is just not fair . But this one looks just great, doesn't it?