Tree pipit and goosander

This video says about itself:

Tree pipit feeding young, video taken last year at Highgate common.

Yesterday, from the train near Groenekan, a white stork in a meadow.

Outside Elst railway station, four jays flying.

We are going to Maasduinen national park in Limburg province.

It is near the German border. Sometimes, border crossing wild boar come here.

Near the entrance, we hear the first cuckoo of this spring. Cuckoo photos: here.

Many willow warblers singing in the park.

Barn swallows fly to their nests in the sheepfold. There is a barn owl nestbox as well. Sometimes, owls visit it; but it is not certain yet if they will nest here this year.

A buzzard flying.

A male kestrel, hovering, then flying to the forest edge with a female.

Below them on the field, an Egyptian goose and a curlew.

A skylark singing and flying. Kwade Hoek skylarks: here.

Grey lag geese. A mistle thrush.

A peacock butterfly.

On top of a coniferous tree, the first one of many tree pipits today, many of them singing.

In a heather patch, a male stonechat. Stonechat photo: here.

We pass a badger set. There are young badgers now.

On a piece of land where maize used to grow fifteen years ago, today “flowering” polytrichum moss.

Field wood-rush.

Tufted ducks in a lake.

Two little grebes.

Toothed spagnum.

This marshy area has few fish who may eat amphibians’ eggs, so lots of amphibians live here. This is the only area in Limburg province where common spadefoot toads live. Some more live in Gelderland and Overijssel provinces.

Other amphibian species here include natterjack toad, moor frog, pool frog, palmate newt and common newt. The smooth snake lives here as well.

A bluethroat.

A field cricket´s den.

In the next lake, about 20 shoveler ducks.

There is an amphibian research project at this lake. After a relatively warm spring night, one may expect scores of frogs and toads in research buckets. However, it has been freezing this night, so there is just one natterjack toad. It is liberated and heads to the water.

Moor frog and great spotted woodpecker sound.

Little white spring draba flowers.

A male chaffinch.

Roe deer tracks. A deer has slept here.

Reindeer lichen. Cladonia coccifera.

A brimstone butterfly.

Campylopus introflexus, an invasive moss species.

Morison’s spurry flowers. Sand sedge. Corynephorus canescens.

Three teal fly over the lake. A female in front, then a male, then another female.

Greenfinch and yellowhammer sound.

Spoonleaf sundew. Still very small, this carnivorous plant will grow.

White beak-sedge. Common cottongrass.

Marsh club moss.

On the footpath, a dead Typhoeus typhoeus dung beetle. It eats rabbit excrement.

Then, a sandy, desert like area. Algae hold the sand together in some places.

On the big lake, a group of six male and female goosander. Rather late in spring for this species.

As we come back to the sheepfold, a shelduck in the water.