Today that cruel wind we've been having lately was blowing a whole lot less and with the sun shining I went to the park where I shoot most of my birds. The park is called Flevopark and it is literally just around the corner from where I live.
Plans to build the park became solid in 1908 but it wasn't until 1928 that construction began. For a city park it is pretty big. It has lots of streams, meadows and ponds. There is also a municipal swimming pool on its grounds as well as a Jewish cemetery.
The park houses a great variety of birds, from the common ones to the not so common ones (although the latter are more difficult to find obviously).
Anyway, as I come here all the time, I thought it would be nice to take Nifty there. However, it is a real pity that the park looks so pitiful at the moment. Instead of a park in Spring colours it looks almost dead as everything is brown and bare. But that can't be helped. I thought going out late afternoon would warm up things a bit and it did, but brown is still brown...
#1 This is the Small Pond (I stitched a few shots together for this one)
IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2iaZjR7 
20130327_5D+Nifty_013 by
Levina de Ruijter, on Flickr
#2 You can often find swans here. (I liked the reflections in this shot)
IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2iaZkat 20130327_5D+Nifty_021 by
Levina de Ruijter, on Flickr
#3 This used to be a Pumping Station (Gemaal in Dutch) for over a hundred years. Now it houses a distillery and tasting room (Proeflokaal in Dutch).
IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2ib3P11 20130327_5D+Nifty_019 by
Levina de Ruijter, on Flickr
#4 A 25 shot pano of the central meadow. In the summertime this is full of people enjoying themselves. Especially in the weekends whole families come here to picnic, barbeque and what not. The low sun is casting its long shadows...
IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2ib2ESt 20130327_5D+Nifty_050_075 by
Levina de Ruijter, on Flickr
#5 The Jewish Cemetery. It has not been in use since 1942 but in accordance with Jewish law the graves have not been cleared. It is situated on the west side of the park and inaccessible to visitors. The city of Amsterdam owns the grounds now. The cemetery dates back to 1714.
IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2iaZkSq 20130327_5D+Nifty_087 by
Levina de Ruijter, on Flickr
#6 The Cemetery from the other side and backlit to show some of the gravestones.
IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2ib3Q1T 20130327_5D+Nifty_082 by
Levina de Ruijter, on Flickr
#7 This is Valentijnkade, a canal that's adjacent to the south side of Flevopark, here on the left. This canal is always worth a visit as you can often find interesting birds here. A couple of Great Crested Grebes reside here e.g. The person off center and to the right in the pic is somebody with a camera and a long, black lens...
Those are Tufted Ducks by the way. Quite a few of them around at the moment.
IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2iaZmjc 20130327_5D+Nifty_108 by
Levina de Ruijter, on Flickr
#8 At the north edge of the park is the Amsterdamse Brug (Bridge). The concrete pillars beneath the road leading up to the bridge are a canvas for street artists. I know that a lot of people don't like graffiti, but there are some great works of art here and I take this over ugly, grey, massive pillars of concrete any day!
IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2ib3QqA 20130327_5D+Nifty_153 by
Levina de Ruijter, on Flickr
There was an artist at work and I had a bit of a chat. Very friendly chap.
Epic rocks!!!
