Cotman watercolours tubes, Faber Castel Pastel pencils on Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolour paper 300gsm 35.6×25.4 cm Hot Press Grain Satiné. The first thing I knew when I saw the beautiful male of the White-rumped shama (Copsychus malabaricus) (Blijdorp Zoo in Rotterdam, the Netherlands): I had to paint it. I had to have some patience, but finally the bird sat down in such position that I could take a good picture from it, with its beautiful long tail (can grow…
How beautiful they are, those spread-winged damselflies. Metallic emerald in the sun, beautiful. There are a number of spread-winged damselflies known in the Netherlands: the Small Emerald, the Emerald, the Migrant, the Scarce Emerald and the Willow Emerald Damselfly. Due to the ‘peninsula’ on the side of their thorax and the fact that it does not have a frost blue, it can be identified as the Willow Emerald Damselfly (Chalcolestes viridis). This is the largest of the spread-winged damselflies found…
Ok then, because he is so beautiful, another picture of the male of the Emperor Dragonfly (Anax imperator). Also called the Blue Emperor, the largest dragonfly species in the Netherlands. You will see the females less often and less easily, because they hide in the vegetation. Not for the males, they can find them. They pick up the females and mate with them (in the bushes). The female then lays the eggs in water floating dead parts of aquatic plants….
This beautiful dragonfly, the Migrant Hawker (Aeshna mixta), has a bit of a strange name in Dutch: the Dutch call it the ‘Paardenbijter’, roughly translated to English: the horse biter. But do they really bite horses? No, that name comes from their hunting behavior. They catch insects around horses (and other animals). Because they fly so close to such an animal it seems as if they bite the animals, so there’s the name: horses biter. But they catch the insects…
This dragonfly is not red, but it is still a scarlet dragonfly (Crocothemis erythraea). It’s the female. All males turn so beautifully scarlet red, up to and including the eyes, for which the scarlet dragonfly is known. Females are often yellowish, although red specimens also seem to occur, less red than the males, though. They are less red then the males, though.The underside of the eyes is blue. Both the male and the female have yellow legs (which is also…
During a nice walk around Wageningen in the Netherlands with beautiful weather, my wife went for a ‘pit stop’ into a hotel. Hubby could wait. That turned out to be no punishment. There was a beautiful male specimen of the Ruddy darter (Sympetrum sanguineum) posing. He asked to be photographed. Unfortunately, my wife had to wait a while after returning, now hubby was busy for a while…! You can see the Ruddy darter from June to October. The male is…
I usually come across the black-tailed skimmer (Orthetrum cancellatum) sitting on the ground, sunbathing on grass/mud paths and gravel. Then unfortunately they are not so beautiful to capture on the photo because their shape and wings are not very good visible against the usually busy background. But luckily you also encounter them in better photography conditions. So did this male of the black-tailed skimmer I came across, nicely sitting against a barren branch with not too much background nearby. Then…
If you can count to 4, you can recognize this dragonfly species. The Four-spotted chaser (Libellula quadrimaculata) has four dark spots in the wings, two in the forewings and two in the hindwings (ok, per side, otherwise it would be the ‘eight spotted’ chaser…). The wings also have a dark base with yellow veins. The color of the body varies from yellow to brown, with black stripes on the sides. They have a length of about 5 centimeters and a…
When I go for a walk with my wife, I always take a camera with me. But not the whole pack, just the camera with zoom lens. Because there is not much real photography time (that is the agreement I made with my wife, you must want to keep the sweet peace 😉). So, we walked through the woods (Dordtse Biesbosch), chatting in the warm sun. And then we saw a photographer, because she had a camera in hand and…
Cotman watercolours tubes, Faber Castel Pastel pencils on Saunders Waterford 300gsm 310×230 Cotton Satiné High White paper The Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus) is One of the meadow birds that you can see (and hear) early in the spring in the Netherlands. When I hear his characteristic shout ‘kieee-vieet’ again, I am happy inside: spring is coming! The beautiful characteristic crest and, especially in the male in spring, a beautiful green and purple metallic sheen on the back. This called to be…
Cotman watercolours tubes, Faber Castel Pastel pencils on Saunders Waterford 300gsm 310×230 Cotton Satiné High White paper On a beautiful sunny, but still fresh evening in early April, I saw this male European stonechat (Saxicola rubicola) sitting on a lookout/singing post in the setting sun, apparently overlooking his domain. Occasionally, he flew into the air in a graceful fit to catch flying insects. I thought this was such a beautiful image, that seemed like a very nice scene to paint….
When I was admiring the large swarms (thousands of) Eurasian Wigeons in the Reeuwijk lakes in the spring (that was really, really great to view!) I also saw this beautiful duck with its striking red-brown crest, the male of the Red-crested Pochard (Netta rufina) (Dutch: Krooneend). Sometimes that crest was set up and its head looked even bigger than in this photo. The Red-crested pochard can be confused with the Common Pochard (Dutch: Tafeleend especially later in the year when the…