White-tailed eagle and bluethroat

On 27 april 2014, to the Biesbosch national park in the Netherlands. Where the cow parsley flowers intermingled with the reed stems.

Our boat trip started in Geertruidenberg town. Where a greenfinch sang, a wood-pigeon cooed, and an Egyptian goose flew overhead, honking.

As the boat departed, a chaffinch sang.

Near the harbour: a coot, a great crested grebe couple, and a mallard.

On the bank, whitethroat and wren singing.

A gadwall duck.

A pheasant calls.

Willow warbler and chiffchaff songs.

On the Amer river bank, shelducks. A swimming great cormorant.

As we enter national park waters, nightingales sing.

A great cormorant and an Egyptian goose, together on a fallen log on the bank.

A great tit sings.

Herring gulls swimming.

A grey lag goose on the bank. A reed bunting sings. So does a song thrush. And a dunnock, and a blackcap. And a garden warbler.

A cuckoo calls.

A great spotted woodpecker makes its ‘drumming’ sound.

A grey heron flying.

We pass a bank with big fallen trees; a good place for a kingfisher‘s nest. Indeed, a kingfisher flies past. Too fast, unfortunately.

Jays.

A Cetti’s warbler sings.

A coot on its nest.

Scores of house martins flying.

A sedge warbler sings.

Canada geese on a bank. Marsh marigold flowers.

A bit further, a beaver swims.

As we walk on the bank, a great egret at a distant lake.

A northern wheatear.

In another lake, shoveler and teal ducks.

Again, a singing sedge warbler.

Redstart singing.

Skylarks singing.

Barn swallows.

Then, the biggest bird of prey of the Netherlands. A white-tailed eagle sits on a tree. Three carrion crows sit next to it, trying to drive it away.

The eagle flies away.

It flies down to the river to drink. Crows keep harassing it.

As the boat goes back, a singing bluethroat on a reed stem.

A buzzard, and a sparrowhawk, flying.

An oystercatcher on a sandbank.

A white wagtail on a bank.

A male and a female marsh harrier flying together.

A lesser black-backed gull.

Two mute swans bending their necks together, then mating.

We are back in Geertruidenberg. A collared dove.

See also here.

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