Versatile Blogger Award again, thanks urbanperegrines!

Blogger urbanperegrines has been so kind to nominate me for the Versatile Blogger Award. Thank you, and all the best for your fine blog!

I got this nomination at the same time as, when getting this award earlier, I had nominated urbanperegrines.

Here are the rules of the Versatile Blogger Award:

1. In a post on your blog, nominate 10 fellow bloggers for The Versatile Blogger Award; and link to them. 2. In the same post, add the Versatile Blogger Award. 3. In the same post, thank the blogger who nominated you in a post with a link back to their blog. 4. In the same post, share 10 completely random pieces of information about yourself. 5. In the same post, include this set of rules. 6. Inform each nominated blogger of their nomination by posting a comment on each of their blogs.

I have nominated the following 10 blogs:

1 365 Days
2 Midnighthues Poetry
3 mothergrogan
4 bestrockmusical
5 Doli Siregar ~ Photography
6 Colddeadheart’s Blog
7 BlueDoorHotel.com
8 jmgoyder
9 Becoming Cliche. My Journey to Becoming My Mother
10 Gerry Frederick digital

And here are ten random pieces of information about myself:

1 Until yesterday, my only first hand experience of barn owls was hearing one and seeing one vaguely in the dark. Yesterday was my first opportunity to see (young) barn owls from a very close distance.
2 I saw my first little owl in Greece long ago. More recently, I saw this species on Lesbos island, also in Greece.
3 I also saw a scops owl on Lesbos.
4 I saw a pharaoh eagle owl in Morocco.
5 I saw various African owl species in the Gambia.
6 I have never seen a snowy owl in the wild, only in zoos.
7 Years ago, a tawny owl used to call in the tree opposite my window. I never saw it, only heard it.
8 I saw my first ever black woodpecker at its nest in a big tree. When I came back there many years later, that tree had decayed and the birds were gone.
9 I saw my first osprey in Egypt, near Philae island.
10 I saw my first redwing during summer months in Iceland (where they nest). I had seen wintering redwings much earlier, further south.

Versatile Blogger Award again, thank you!

Blogger Otove has been so kind to nominate me for the Versatile Blogger Award. Thank you so much!

Here are the rules of the Versatile Blogger Award (they are versatile again, compared to the last time that my blog got this award):

1. In a post on your blog, nominate 10 fellow bloggers for The Versatile Blogger Award. 2. In the same post, add the Versatile Blogger Award. 3. In the same post, thank the blogger who nominated you in a post with a link back to their blog. 4. In the same post, share 10 completely random pieces of information about yourself. 5. In the same post, include this set of rules. 6. Inform each nominated blogger of their nomination by posting a comment on each of their blogs.

UPDATE: people are also supposed to link to the blog which nominated them, and to the blogs which they in turn nominate. Sorry, I should have been clearer about that.

I have nominated the following 10 blogs:

1 Sharmishtha Basu’s poetries
2 urbanperegrines
3 My Botanical Garden
4 Passing Through
5 metaretriever
6 L’amore e forte come la morte
7 Russel Ray Photos
8 photobotos.com
9 Lesley Carter
10 Mazzarella Photo

And here are ten random pieces of information about myself:

1 I have two eyes, one nose, and one mouth.
2 I love birds.
3 I love other animals (like amphibians, mammals, etc.) as well. But often, they are more difficult to spot than birds.
4 I have forty subjects at my blog. When I don’t feel like blogging on one particular subject, there’s always the other 39
5 I have traveled to quite some places.
6 I still remember fondly many of them; including especially the Antarctic.
7 I have never been in the USA … well, just once, for five minutes. The ferry from Vancouver island in Canada to Vancouver city in Canada passes through a bit of United States territorial waters.
8 I saw killer whales from that ferry.
9 Sometimes, I use my binoculars not for birds, but for (very amateurish) astronomy.
10 Yesterday, a ring-necked parakeet flew not far away from my window.

Versatile Blogger Award, thanks intergenerational!

Intergenerational, of the beautiful blog My Botanical Garden, was so kind to nominate this blog for the Versatile Blogger Award. Thank you so much, and good luck with your blogging!

(The rules are indeed versatile, they changed a bit since the last time I got that award. They still, correctly, include thanking the blogger who nominated you, and notifying the bloggers whom you nominate).

According to the rules here are 15 blogs which I recommend for the award:

1) MoonLightened Way

2) Ann Novek–With the Sky as the Ceiling and the Heart Outdoors

3) ATA MOTEK, a Romanian blog

4) Rodposse from Greece

5) marina kanavaki in Greece

6) Musings on Nature & Items of Interest in the USA

7) kofegeek

8) Tracie Louise Photography

9) schtiel in Romania

10) Female Humans, by Neha Mendiratta Khullar in India

11) Staatsbosbeheer Texel, about nature reserves on a beautiful island in the Netherlands

12) Keelan Foley from Ireland

13) 1001 Scribbles

14) The Trail

15) Culture Design

And now 7 things about me; 7 places which I like:

1) Cacela Velha in Portugal

2) Tendaba in Gambia

3) Kaiser mountains in Suriname

4) Baboensanti in Suriname

5) Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands

6) Groene Jonker nature reserve in the Netherlands

7) Oostvaardersplassen nature reserve in the Netherlands

If you’ve received the award previously, then know I feel you deserve another one. Congratulations!

The rules of the award are:

1) Thank the person who nominated you and link back to them in your post.
2) Share 7 things about yourself.
3) Pass the award on to 15 more bloggers.
4) Contact the bloggers you’ve chosen to let them know that they’ve been selected.

Creative Chaos Award, thank you catbird365!

Thank you so much, catbird365, for nominating me for the Creative Chaos Award! It is a honour to get this award from such a fine blog with fine photos.

Here are the rules for the Creative Chaos Award:

1. You must tell 3 completely weird things about your habits. If you claim to have no weird habits, you’re lying and we’ll have to send an investigative team for further analysis.

2. You must tell why you look at the “glass half full” scenario and ask “what? No coffee?”

3. Complete any one of the following essay questions:

A. You find yourself in a desolate place when your car breaks down. You have no cell phone service, no Walmart (I know, GASP, right?), and only a candy bar for food. It is 150 miles to the closest town. What color are your pants and why?

B. You find yourself having to ride an elevator quite frequently. How do you pass the time to show off your creativity?

4. Then you are to nominate 5 random people and let them know.

5. Make sure to show proper gratitude to the person who nominated you whether that is to shower them with gifts, prizes, and cash or to see that they are put into a clown costume and photographed for internet mocking.

6. Make sure to post the award somewhere other than the underside of the toilet seat.

The 3 completely weird things about my habits are:

1. Every time I leave my house, I look whether the long-tailed tits are at their usual spot.

2. I don’t smoke.

3. I don’t use opiates.

You must tell why you look at the “glass half full” scenario and ask “what? No coffee?”

I hardly ever drink coffee. Now, if the question would have been about guava juice …

The reply to the question is:

A. You find yourself in a desolate place when your car breaks down. You have no cell phone service, no Walmart (I know, GASP, right?), and only a candy bar for food. It is 150 miles to the closest town. What color are your pants and why?

I have no driving licence and no car, so cars don’t influence the colour of any of my clothes.

My five nominees are:

1. Kofegeek.

2. Science for Scientists blog.

3. bottleneck analysis.

4. Inimese.

5. Russel Ray Photos.

Long-tailed tit and horsetails

After computer monitor trouble, this blog is back.

This morning, a long-tailed tit in the usual small tree near the bridge.

Ring-necked parakeet sound.

This video is about horsetails.

Between the stones of the bridge grow small plants with a big history: horsetails. Ancestors of them already grew in the age of the dinosaurs, and long before the dinosaurs in the Carboniferous age, when some of them grew as tall as trees, unlike the small plants of today. Horsetails lived even before the Carboniferous, in the Devonian.

Versatile Blogger Award again, thanks Ann!

Thank you so much, Ann Novek, for nominating me for the Versatile Blogger Award! It really is a honour to get this award from the author of such an interesting blog.

For this blog, this is the second time it got that award.

The rules for the Versatile Blogger Award are:

In a post on your blog, nominate 7 fellow bloggers for The Versatile Blogger Award.

In the same post, add the Versatile Blogger Award.

In the same post, thank the blogger who nominated you in a post with a link back to their blog.

In the same post, share 7 completely random pieces of information about yourself.

In the same post, include this set of rules.

Inform each nominated blogger of their nomination by posting a comment on each of their blogs.

7 completely random pieces of information about me:

1. I saw hippos in the Gambia.

2. Yesterday afternoon, a couple of collared doves landed on my balcony.

3. This week, I heard the blackbird near my house sing for the first time this spring.

4. Yesterday, my computer screen went blank for no apparent reason. Nothing to get my computer back to health again worked. An hour later, everything worked fine, for no apparent reason.

5. I write poetry.

6. Sometmes, I interview other poets for my blog.

7. Sometimes, I translate poetry into English.

My nominees are:

1. Malou’s Going Dutch blog.

2. Tracie Louise Photography.

3. Elena’s blog Live simply, travel lightly, love passionately & don’t forget to breathe.

4. Nikolay Kotev’s blog.

5. Craig Hill.

6. Manipal’s Photo Blog.

7. naturestimeline blog.

Fewer, or no, posts on this blog

In the coming days, there will be fewer, or no, posts on this blog.

Don’t worry, in about fourteen days’ time the normal blogging frequency will resume. And I will have unusual blog posts, about a subject new for this blog.

Versatile Blogger Award

Not long after Jean Mishra gave me the Kreativ Blogger Award, she was so kind to give me the Versatile Blogger Award as well.

Thank you so much! And so soon after I brought my main blog to WordPress, as Blogsome where I used to be, is closing down.

Now, seven things about myself, as the Versatile Blogger Award rules stipulate.

1. I am not on Facebook, and won’t be as long as they don’t solve their privacy problems.

2. My first birdwatching time was when I walked to primary school, and saw redwings on a wintery meadow, jackdaws, and rooks.

3. I saw a humpback whale breaching, not far from Antarctica.

4. I saw tapir tracks in the interior of Suriname.

5. I saw green turtles laying their eggs in the coastal region of Suriname.

6. I met a grizzly bear in the Rocky Mountains. It was a young bear, and it started to run away from me before I saw it properly.

7. I saw a puffin chick come out of its nest hole in England, maybe for its first time.

—-

My 15 nominees for the Versatile Blogger Award are:

1. Wilden Marsh Nature Reserve blog.

2. Protein Art.

3. Talin Orfali.

4. dou dou birds.

5. Laura Klappenbach’s Animals/Wildlife blog.

6. GrrlScientist.

7. Art Threat.

8. scribblinghermit.

9. Socialist Unity blog in Britain.

10. Basil Wheel (mostly in Romanian).

11. This psychology blog (in Dutch).

12. Rooieravotr’s political blog (in Dutch).

13 Vogeldagboek (beautiful bird and some other animal photos. Text in Dutch, but the photos speak for themselves).

14. lonelym.

15. Lower Dover Field Journal, from Belize.

—-

If you’ve received the award previously, then know I feel you deserve another one. Congratulations!

The rules of the award are:

1) Thank the person who nominated you and link back to them in your post.
2) Share 7 things about yourself.
3) Pass the award on to 15 more bloggers.
4) Contact the bloggers you’ve chosen to let them know that they’ve been selected.

This blog back from the dead

I can blog again now after a half day interruption. Some freakish WordPress computer had stopped me from blogging “because of my blog content”. Fortunately, WordPress staff has corrected that now. Thanks!

Smew and spoonbill

This is my blog post #2,500 in the Birds category of Dear Kitty; since I started blogging in 2005 (not on WordPress then yet).

After Goeree and the Brouwersdam earlier today, this afternoon birds of Schouwen island.

In the lakes near the south coast, a male red-breasted merganser, swimming not far from a female smew.

This is a video about two female smews in winter in Sweden.

Shoveler ducks. Redshanks on the banks.

A spoonbill feeding. It is supposed to winter in Africa now. However, every winter, some spoonbills do not migrate south. So far, this individual has been lucky, as the winter weather has not been harsh.

Curlews.

A bit further: an avocet.

A male pheasant.

Rooks on a field.

In the big Greveliongen lake near Scharendijke, little grebes swimming. Also great crested grebes, courting.

As we go back to the Brouwersdam: male and female red-breasted mergansers swim near male and female goldeneyes.

Turnstones on the dike.