Category Archives: Europe

17th C. Dutch bird paintings exhibit

Six restored paintings from Dutch bird painter Melchior d’Hondecoeter will be on display at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam until March 9, 2009. Hondecoeter was the first Dutch artist to paint realistic images of wild native and exotic birds. We just visited the Rijksmuseum in September, too bad this exhibit didn’t start until this month. You can read more about the paintings and exhibit here.

Melchior d'Hondecoeter's The Menagerie
The Menagerie by Melchior d’Hondecoeter

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Posted in Art, Netherlands | Leave a comment

Killer predatory mice threaten endangered Albatross

BirdLife is reporting that the U.K.’s Tristan Albatross population is being hit by predatory mice that were introduced to the island where they live. Gough Island is the only home of the Tristan Albatross as well as the Gough Bunting. Both species are hurting from the killer mice which prey on both species’ chicks. Read the whole article here.

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Posted in Aside, Endangered, Europe | Leave a comment

Video: Little Grebe crashes into Muskrat underwater

This video was taken at L’etang de Beaumont in France in August 2008. The lake is in the Loire Valley and one of the best birding spots in the region. We took this video from a hide by the lake. The muskrat is swimming along when it appears to hit something. A moment later a Little Grebe surfaces.

If you click on the video you can watch a hi-res version on YouTube.

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Posted in France, Video | 1 Comment

Rare Snowy Owl visiting NL

A Snowy Owl was spotted on Texel last Saturday and is still being seen on the Wadden island. The young female owl has been spotted on the polder ‘Eijerland’.

Since the first sighting on Saturday, hundreds of birders have visited Texel hoping to see the rare bird. Snowy Owls normally live on Greenland, in northern Scandinavia and Siberia.

It is unknown how or why the young female bird is so far out of her range. Experts say there is plenty of prey for the bird to survive on the island, should she stay.

Source: Zeldzame sneeuwuil gespot op Texel

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Posted in Netherlands, Rare / Vagrant | Leave a comment

Video: Little Grebe plays sailboat

This video was taken at L’etang de Beaumont in France in August 2008. The lake is in the Loire Valley and one of the best birding spots in the region. We took this video from a hide by the lake. The Little Grebe looks to be stretching its wings but it did this for several minutes, so maybe it was trying to dry them off? It looked it was pretending to be a sailboat.

If you click on the video you can watch a hi-res version on YouTube.

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Posted in France, Video | 1 Comment

Researcher shows dove species can interbreed

Doves that have ‘affairs’ with different species of dove don’t have to worry about their posterity. Dutch Biologiest Paula den Hartog showed that descendants of two different species of dove had no special health issues and were able to reproduce. Den Hartog presented her research last Thursday at the University of Leiden.

Dove with chicks

Descendants of two different animal species are frequently infertile or they die while an embryo. Examples of this are the mule, a cross between a horse and a donkey, which is infertile; offspring between goats and sheep usually die before birth.

Den Hartog discovered that offspring from two different species of dove have a different call than either parent species. Because of their exotic voice they attract mates and are able to reproduce.

Source: Tortelduifjes kunnen onbezorgd vreemdgaan

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Posted in Netherlands, Pigeons! | Leave a comment

Dutch Researchers Seek 2nd Dodo Species

Yesterday a team of paleontologists from the Netherlands’ natural history museum Naturalis traveled to Mauritius on a new expedition. During previous expeditions the Dutch team discovered a mass grave of Dodo bones and they are returning to the site to do more intensive research. Within the bones that were previously discovered, two distinct different sizes of birds can be identified. This indicates more than one species of Dodo.

dodo

Scientists from Naturalis and the Natural Heritage Fund Mauritius speculate the Dodo may have experienced adaptive radiation, similar to what occurred with finch species on the Galapagos Archipelago. The difference in the found Dodo bone sizes might also indicate a difference in the size between males and females of the same species. The smaller bones are not likely to be from young birds as the birds matured to adulthood after a year. The team of scientists hopes to answer the question during their expedition.

During the initial discovery of bones on Mauritius in August 2007, a total of 80 large sacks of material was removed from the site. So far half of the material has been inspected. Besides a great number of Dodo bones, material from other animals and plants was also found in the mass grave.

The cause of death for the animals whose remains were found in the mass grave is still a mystery. After the current expedition, in July 2009 the grave will be further dug out.

The team will keep a weblog during their expedition, a portion of which is available in English.

Source: Op zoek naar meer dan één soort dodo

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Posted in Extinct, Netherlands | Leave a comment

Video: White Wagtail walking on lilypads

This is another video I took during our visit to Chateau de Cheverny in France back in August 2008. There were lots of White Wagtails running around the grounds and several were hanging out at a small pond where we also saw a Kingfisher hunting. The Wagtails would fly up a few yards and then seem to divebomb back towards the water, but before hitting the surface they would slow down and land on a wooden structure that was in the water and furiously tail-wag. It was like they were trying to act like the Kingfisher by divebombing into the water.

Besides that strange behavior I also noticed a couple of Wagtails running across a patch of lilypads:

If you click on the video you can watch a hi-res version on YouTube.

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Video: Kingfisher in France

Last month we visited the Loire Valley region of France. We stayed in Bourguiel and visited several chateaux, including Cheverny, which is situated on lovely grounds that included a small pond where we saw this Kingfisher hunting for lunch.

If you click on the video you can watch a hi-res version on YouTube.

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