Title bar of 'Birds around my House'

Birds in Leiden and Surroundings

last update: 2011-02-09

Photography has been a long time hobby of mine, and nature one of my favourite subjects. This only increased after I bought a digital SLR camera (Nikon D70s with a Sigma 18-200 lens) at the end of 2005. At April 28th, 2008 I bought a secondhand Nikkor 70-300mm 1:4-5.6 D lens. Then at March 25th I got a new SLR camera: a Nikon D300, so any picture from those days on will be made with that lens and camera.
One of the challenges I set myself was to try and photograph as many species of bird from my apartment as I could. Since I live on the highest floor (3rd) and have a nice view, there's lots of gulls, jackdaws etc. to be seen, but there is also a tree in front of my balcony, and a tree and some bushes on the back lawn, where a number of songbirds can be spotted. Finally there is a canal some 50 meters from my apartment, of which I can see a few glimpses between the houses.

So here you can see the result so far. Just click on any name on the left side to see one or two pictures I took of that bird, with details about it. I've also added an Extra's section with a number of pictures that didn't fit in the regular pages.
I couldn't resist the temptation to also include pictures of birds that I made outside the house, mostly in the area around my house, but a for few of the rarer birds I also included pictures that I made around the town or even in the area around Leiden. This is especially true for the water fowl, since I have so little view on water from my apartment. But wherever possible I selected pictures from as close to my house as possible, even when that meant not showing a superior one.

There are a few outside locations that I took a number of pictures:

Korte Vliet - this canal I can see from my apartment (though barely), so taking pictures there is almost the same as from my apartment. There are many common water birds, and also Cormorants and Egyptian Geese passing regularly.
Around my parent's house - They live about 1 km away from me, and they have a garden bordering a ditch / canal. A good place to find common birds I don't see from my apartment.
Hooghkamer Park - a small park with a petting zoo and a playground, only about 100m away from me.
Ter Wadding - a small park (perhaps 150m x 100m) some 1 km away, in between the city and a suburb. There's a lot of Rose-ringed Parakeets (and they make themselves heard!), several species of songbirds, and some surprises.
Cronesteyn - a large park at the egde of the city, also about 1 km away, with large meadows seperated by ditches, some forest areas and a swamp area. Because of the diversity, there are many different types of birds. My father has even seen a (common) Kingfisher here once. One of the forest areas has a blue heron nesting colony. There is a second park, called 'de Bult', that is almost bordering Cronesteyn, and they were constructed around the same time, so for me it's sort of one park.
Zoeterwoude-zuidbuurt - This is a rural area, some 5 km. away from my house, where there are many meadows with ditches. This is a good place to spot meadow birds, herons, and groups of migratory birds, like the Wigeon.
Vlietlanden - This is a large recreation area with a big lake and beach, and some wooded areas. The most interesting water birds are in the next lake (Starre Vaart), but there are pheasants, birds of prey, and probably some birds who like reeds and marches.
Starre Vaart - This is a shallow lake near Voorschoten/Leidschendam, bordering the Vlietlanden, which is a famous place for bird watchers to spot all sorts of water and meadow birds, like various species of duck, cormorants, spoonbills, herons, large groups of lapwings, birds of prey, etc.

The order that I list the birds in is the same as in the books I use: "Veldgids Vogels van Europa" by Paul Sterry and Jim Flegg, and "ANWB Vogelgids van Europa" by Mullarney, Svensson, Zetterstroem and Grant. The english names of the birds I looked up at the Mangoverde World Bird Guide.

If you want to know more details about the picture, like the camera settings, you can save the picture (right click on it) and open it with a viewer that supports EXIF information (like Irfanview). But please contact me if you want to use my pictures elsewhere.

This page only allows two pictures per species, and sometimes even scaled down to fit reasonably on the page. Of course there are some pictures I want to share that are not suitable or don't fit here, so I decided to add an extra's page.

For remarks, compliments(!), and questions you can email me.

All pictures are made by me (unless explicitly listed); please don't use them without prior permission.