Spotting Birds in Voorschoten...

In addition to spotting foals near the field, we encountered pheasants for the first time in the field. It’s very difficult to see, but there’s actually some babies running (likely too young to fly) in front of the mama as the family scrambled to get out of Kati’s way. 

More often than not, I missed catching photos of the pheasants as they sought distance from Kati, but I managed to catch these few. 

A much more common bird in the field and beyond is the blue heron. 

I was quite excited to catch sight of four eggs in this floating nest of a couple of grebes (aquatic diving birds). 

It was cool to see them working on perfecting the nest...

…before settling down to the serious business of incubating the eggs. 

I started carrying my camera daily and taking detours to check on the progress. Sadly, one day they were just gone. No nest, no parents, no babies. A passerby said she thought that a passing boat might have destroyed the nest. 

The ducks next to the nest were of no help to explain what happened. 

This coot (water bird) couple clearly had better luck as they had two red-headed babies.