Monday, 06-Feb-12 22:19:00 CET

It is cold now

Last weekend was the coldest night in 27 years measured in this province, -22°C (-7.6°F), and that is cold. That is deadly cold. Essentially in Sweden you show respect to nature because otherwise it might kill you. In Holland you cannot care less about nature. This is why it might come as an absolutely overwhelming surprise to some Dutch people that when the nature show up one cold night it could make a nasty frostbite of a nose or ear and a couple of fingers.

The most common misunderstanding among Dutch is that people from Sweden are “supposed to stand cold”. I don’t know if this originates from some bad Dutch stand-up comedian because it is very wide-spread empty phrase among the Dutch and supposedly funny.

I don’t see anything funny here. The best reply I found so far is “Dutch people rather die from hypothermia than confusing their hairstyle, and if I hear this comment anymore then I will start showing close up pictures of fresh frostbite wounds.”

I have been reading about Nature photography lately and one of the tips was that most common beginner’s mistake is to make photos in sunny weather over day. The teacher said that it is better to make nice nature photos in the dawn and in the afternoon and the sunset because then the light is softer. This is also something that my dad has been talking about, cloudy weather is actually better for nice photography. I like the warm light of sun so I have not really been able to grasp this definition of “better” so there are still some things I need to figure out about this.

As a consequence of the great tip from the professionals I had decided to stand up early on Saturday. It was too early actually. Next time I will check out www.sunrisesunset.com before I set my alarm clock. It turned out that on 4th January the sunrise was on 8:18 and sunset at 17:30. That was also when the most spectacular photos could be made and I missed these. So before the sun had really started to show up I was already in the car on the way to my destination. When I arrived it was pitch dark and it was cold, awfully cold. It had decided to make pictures of the red deer’s at Oostvaardersplassen but I changed my plans and stayed in the car. I drove to the Almere haven instead. This is logical because the sunrise takes place over a large lake on that side of Almere. While driving I was listening to the radio and then they said that this was the coldest night in 27 years of this province with -22°C (-7.6°F). I suppose this is the kind of knowledge usually being shared on the night radio.

Another thing I learned is that I will check the full moon tables as well before I go out on the next nightly photography session. :)

Last time I went for night photography I lost my tripod so I was really concentrated on not doing that mistake again. Also last time I made photos the entire session without checking the result and so I had missed that I had the wrong setting on the lens. This did not happen this time. I came home with useful pictures.

Well at home I was welcomed by a European Robin of the family Muscicapidae. The bird checked out all the attractions in my bird’s amusement park. Male Robins are noted for their highly aggressive behavior but I could not see anything of this on this bird. I like the bright color very much so it is welcome back anytime.

The visit of the European Robin was as much as I could hope for so when the Blue Tit appeared then I was overwhelmed. The Blue Tit is special for me because all my life I called it Great Tit but that was wrong. The Blue Tit is much more common. The day I see a real Great Tit I know it should be less blue and not have black sun glasses but a black hood. I learned about this through this blog a couple of weeks ago. I had placed photos of the bird and then I got comments that the bird on the photo was not the correct bird.

Then the cat of the neighbors showed up. She is always up for a snack, the livelier the better. So what was she hunting for this time?

It turned out to be a charming little bird that had found a safe hangout under the roof. This is a male Black Redstart (Phoenicurus ochruros) according to reliable sources. It is a very nice bird with the brightly colored tail feathers. Really beautiful. It is a real honor to have this beauty in my garden.