A thunderstorm is rolling across the sky after a hot
Spring day, now that I am back from a 4-day visit to Herperduin, part of the
nature reserve Maashorst. This short Holiday is a yearly family event, though
there was spare time to investigate the reserve and all that is living in it.
Herperduin is a forest located between Ravenstein and
Oss, near Herpen, in the Province of Noord-Brabant in the Netherlands.
Herperduin is over 400 acres across and it’s a significant habitat for many
plants and animals, like the great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocops major).
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| Great spotted woodpecker with grubs for the young. |
The woodpecker in the photograph was foraging on grubs
to feed the young, nested in a tree near one of the family cottages at the
Holiday Park of Herperduin. The male woodpecker was paying some attention to
people wandering nearby ‘his’ tree, though it didn’t put him off too much to
choose this nesting site so close to the cottages.
To photograph the bird, I had to camouflage myself and use the setting of the surroundings, like nettle (it stings!), to hide my presence. The mosquitoes were bothering me greatly and the nettle around my lower body was beginning to itch like hell. I told myself over and over again: "Keep breathing. Keep still. It will pay off eventually, stick to the job. Keep focused". After a while the bird spotted me despite my tantalizing efforts to blend in (smart one!), so I left him to do his business.
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| A sneak-peak at the great spotted woodpecker from behind leaves and nettle. |
Grubs were plenty at Herperduin. We found grubs exploring on the site everywhere: on the garden set, at the dinner table, in one of the mobile phone pouches, in the bathtub... The grubs sail down from trees on small fibers by the thousands! I spotted sparrow, goldcrest, marsh tit, wren and other small birds foraging on the grubs. Enough food for the birds!
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| One of the many grubs, as a sort of explosion of life. |
Herperduin consists of a great variation in habitats:
coniferous and deciduous trees, meadows, hills, sand dunes, ponds and fens. One
morning I made a walk across the sand dunes of Herperduin, which are dry and
poor in vegetation.
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| Sand dunes and wood at Herperduin. |
Close to the dunes are fens like Klompven and Groot
Ganzeven. Groot Ganzeven is a natural restored fen, which was pasture area
before the restoration. Klompven was created by sand extraction for the
construction of the highway A50.
I visited Klompven during a short rain shower, taking cover under the branches of the pines, hoping that the rain would pass and offer me the golden light of sunshine after the rain. After the sky cleared, the light was incredible to take great pictures. I really enjoyed strolling around in the reserve of Herperduin, from itching while waiting for the great spotted woodpecker till the rain shower in the woods near Klompven!
I visited Klompven during a short rain shower, taking cover under the branches of the pines, hoping that the rain would pass and offer me the golden light of sunshine after the rain. After the sky cleared, the light was incredible to take great pictures. I really enjoyed strolling around in the reserve of Herperduin, from itching while waiting for the great spotted woodpecker till the rain shower in the woods near Klompven!
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| Incredible colors of trees after a rain shower, mirroring on the surface of Klompven. |
