Until a couple of years ago I spent a lot of time bird watching. I never was much of a twitcher, but seeing a rare bird always gave me a thrill. The twitches I did raised my adrenaline level and there was always the question if the bird would still be there and if we would be able to find it. And then the excitement if it was…
This weekend I planned to go with Ruben to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition in the Hague. When we were discussing what to do afterwards, I thought about that Baltimore Oriole, which is present in Alkmaar for over a month now. Being not too far from the exhibition we decided to go there in the afternoon.
The Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition was really nice. Such a great pictures! I was a little surprised however to see the disqualified winning picture still hanging, even without any note telling the story…
In Alkmaar we managed to find the Oriole pretty quick. A nice bird, only the second for the Netherlands. However, when I was trying to get a decent picture of it, I realized that the thrill wasn’t there anymore. I was a bit annoyed that he didn’t want to pose for me, but didn’t really feel the joy of seeing a rarity. After a while I even started to get bored so we moved on to the beach. So I think twitching really isn’t my thing anymore and I don’t think I’ll be really tempted to do it again, unless the bird is really spectacular…
The best I could do on this bird.
Natureview photography 