The Wood Warbler (Dutch: “Fluiter”) is a tiny little birdie that I had never seen before in my life, until last week…
We had just returned from a somewhat unsuccessful photoshoot in the “Amsterdamse Waterleidingduinen” – a 3400 hectare coastal area between Amsterdam and the North Sea with a wide range of dunes and canals. The “AWD” serves as a water purification centre for the city of Amsterdam and surrounding towns. There are deer, foxes, and a host of birdlife, but none of these provided for any interesting shooting opportunities that day.
So on our way back, close to the entrance and parking area we were quite surprised to see a couple of photographers attempting to shoot what seemed to be a rapidly moving and (almost) invisible object around 20 meters high in the trees. There was this barely visible green/yellow miniature creature, frantically singing, jumping around and flying from branch to branch. At around 15:00 PM the light was not in my favour, but every now and then the sun threw a ray of light onto this little birdie against a shadowy background and I knew from previous experience this is where the D850 AF system ‘shines’.
“Moss green & lemon yellow”
Nikon 600mm f/4E FL on Nikon D850, f/4, 1/640 s., ISO 400, AF-Area Mode: Single
Given the size of this little one and the distance between us, I was not expecting anything useful to come out. And hand-holding the Nikon 600mm f/4 wasn’t that easy either. But those 46 megapixels and Nikon D850 AF-combo managed to surprise me once again…
While I (mostly) prefer to shoot mammals there was something around this image that sort of stuck and made me decide to have a go at post-processing. But what’s also quite interesting is the story behind this moss green/lemon yellow Wood Warbler: it travels each summer from central Africa to the European continent to find a mate and make even smaller little Warblers, after which it flies all the way back again to the jungles of central Africa! No visas required or expensive plane tickets, just a 10000 km. flying journey, one way. Amazing…
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