Holiday photies

Hi everyone,

Chris and I survived southern Spain *G* it was between 30 and 40 degrees during the day and about 20 at night. We had only a few drops of rain and that was during the night. A nice breeze made it durable enough to do things during the morning, afternoon and evening. Especially the evenings were beautiful with a nice sunset and a bright moon.

Below some photies of the holiday, so enjoy

SW

A goat of stone guarding the entrance of a house

Spanish snails in matching colours

A huge working ant next to a more normal sized ant

Our rental car, a fiat punto which was a surprisingly good car. Good handling, spacious and fast, but the brakes were a bit weird

a closeup of a palm tree

Chris climbing, I think he climbed about everything he could climb :S

And the house :) where we spend the week, thanks to chris's parents

(More photies will follow shortly)

Holiday!!!

Hi everyone,

Just a quick one, I'll be on holiday in Spain, Alicante, for the upcoming week.
So I wish everyone who is still working and won't have holiday for the upcoming weeks a good week. STERKTE!!!! (as we say it in Dutch)

Hopefully I will make some good photies, so keep checking after next week.

SW

Blue birds

As many of you might know there are birds in many different and exotic colours. One of the colours that is seen in many birds is blue. I find it a very appropriate colour for birds as of course the sky in which they fly is blue as well.
So here are some photies I made at Avifauna (Alphen aan de Rijn, the Netherlands) of blue birds.


Enjoy,

SW


Red billed blue magpie (Urocissa erythrorhyncha) I already posted a photie of this bird earlier, but was a bit confused to what it was called, cause in dutch they apparently use the name Kitta for magpie while we also use the word ekster.


Greater blue eared starling (Lamprotornis chalybaeus)


Edwards pheasant (Lophura edwardsi), this one has red facial skin and blue shiny plumage, its cousin the crested fireback pheasant (Lophura ignita rufa) has bright blue facial skin.


White throated magpie jay (Calocitta formosa)

Animecon 2007

This year I went to Animecon in Almelo, the Netherlands for the first time and IT WAS GREAT!!!!!

http://www.animecon.nl/Default.aspx/1

This picture is of a statue of a horse in the theater hotel.

Unfortunately no pics of the cosplayers as I actually was a bit amazed by all these people. So next year hopefully it will be better :) and with a bit of luck I will be cosplaying next year as well *G*

And this is Shiawase from Chobits :) isn't she cute

SW

Avifauna and NOP

Last week I went to visit the toucans at Avifauna in Alphen aan de Rijn and the NOP (Dutch shelter for Parrots) in Veldhoven to get information on management and to see if I could include their Toucans in my study to get a bigger sample size.

The Avifauna was very excited about the study and are glad to help and allowed me to observe and collect feaces from the 2 couples of Red Billed Toucans they have.

The NOP gave me lots of useful information about the management and especially nutrition, which is always a tricky thing with toucans. Although they have many toucans from all species it is unfortunately impossible to include them in my sample. Because it is breeding season the shelter does not appreciate me collecting feaces, by non invasive methods. And since this is a very delicate time I respect their choice.

As I was at both bird parks I had a look at the exhibits as well and managed some photies of various birds.

Enjoy,

SW

A male Red Billed Toucan (Ramphastos tucanus) at Avifauna

A couple of Toco Toucans (Ramphastos toco) at the NOP

Where ever I go a Crowned Pigeon (Goura scheepmakeri) crosses my path. This picture was taken at the NOP

Even wooden ones *G* This one is found at Avifauna

A portrait of a White-crowned Hornbill (Berenicornis comatus) at the NOP

Another photie of a White-crowned Hornbill holding a piece of food, taken at Avifauna

A wrinkled Hornbill (Aceros corrugatus) at the NOP

A common female duck at Avifauna

A unknown bird with a impressive tail at Avifauna

And a artistic croc next to the noisy Lorrie exhibit, what would it be quiet if that croc was real.....sigh.......

JRs

On many occasions I have posted photies of my 3 JRs, and today I ad another bunch of photies to that list. By now the oldest one Tippy is 10 and is still doing great dispite her Rheumatoid Arthritus. Jessie is the 8 year old and still has some trouble with her allergies, though she luckely grew over her food allergy. Cody is the youngest of the bunch with 3 years and has a clean bill of health, he is also the one that keeps the girls young.

Ow and I am glad everyone likes my new banner and of course thanks to all leaving posts, really I do read them *G*

SW


Tippy upon me calling her name


Mid yawn


Yo!!!!!


Jessie upon seeing my camera "Ow yeah a camera, sit still and look cute" *G*


I've got no words for that face :)


Hihi, Cody pretending he is Rudy, the banana nose


Cody on the real sheep fur, which he gladly marked when it was brand new, I am just glad he does not use it as a rawhide chew!!

Toucans and other birds

Hi,

As some of you already know I am currently doing the MSc Course in Animal Biology and Welfare. The course has three parts of which one term in England at Writtle College near Chelmsford, Essex, one term in the Netherlands at the HAS in Den Bosch and 5 months of dissertation.
It was a bit of a hassle to find a proper dissertation but I was just in time with finding one. Well actually I was bold enough to go to Rotterdam Zoo (where I did a previous traineeship on Crowned Pigeons) and ask if I could do my own thought up dissertation there. At first I wanted to do research on the welfare of exotic pheasants, such as the Crested Fireback (Lophura genus). But the curator of the birds kept on talking about the many toucans they had and since I found it a better (in all perspectives) subject, I said yes and Rotterdam Zoo said yes as well.
So now I am working on a welfare assessment of 17 toucans at Rotterdam Zoo, and I am specifically focusing on stress. As a result I get to spend lots of time with birds and learn a lot from the keepers as well. This is of course perfect for not only knowledge and fun (like being bombarded with shit by Turacos and Oropendolas) but also photies.

SW


A Keel Billed Toucan (Ramphastos sulfuratus)


Another Keel Bill


A colourful beak of a Keel Bill (That was a close one by the way)


A female Mandarin duck (Aix galericulata)


A male Mandarin duck


The Bush-Stone Curlew (Burhinus grallarius)


Don't have to say it twice, but this female was on eggs and therefore sat very still. It did take me a while to find her as she was right in front of my camera :S Strange? Well very common for people like me to not see the obvious.


And lastly, a very rare sight, me on a photie !!! together with Tom Tom, the male Muscovy duck. Chris was so kind to take this one and many other pictures of the muscovys, check out his Photie Page (The link is on the right side).

Japanese cutlery

Here are some pics I made of my new japanese style cutlery. I love these kind of cutlery and have a huge collection of it by now, mostly thank to my mom :).

Enjoy,

SW

Training of a dressage horse

Hi everyone,

At the moment I have a whole waiting list for things to put on my blog, but my course often gets in the way. I'll tell more about that in the next post.

About two weeks ago my horse riding instructor called me with the question if I would like to accompany her to her own horse riding class. Of course!!!!! was my response :)

I made good use of having the chance to make some photies while both Lieneke and Kupfer (the horse) were working very hard.

Enjoy,

SW