Fotografie van Wespendieven Pernis apivorus en het verhaal achter de foto's

Over the years, the author spent substantial time and effort in photographing Honeybuzzards inhabiting the southwestern Veluwe and neighbouring valley. His activities not only resulted in nice pictures, but also in detailed observations of the behaviour of this elusive species. In one instance, his photographs resulted in the rediscovery of a male carrying a datalogger, which had disappeared from the researcher’s radar but surfaced again after carefully checking the pictures. As a consequence, the data on the logger (covering two full migration cycles) of this bird could be retrieved, its nest located and its chicks ringed. Similarly, photographs allowed individual recognition of breeding and non-breeding Honey-buzzards, showing that recently 7 out of 20 seem to have disappeared (in the sense of: not seen anymore), perhaps indicative of high mortality among adults?