ChrisMak
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johnvanr wrote:
Funny, right. I'm close to NYC, in an area probably as densely populated as Holland, but I can shoot eagles, peregrines, osprey and a ton of other cool birds within a relatively small radius. In Holland, it's much harder to find cool birds despite all kinds of preservation efforts. Since I took up bird photography in 2015, I take my Olympus 300mm lens to Holland whenever I visit, but it's not very rewarding. OTOH, I now notice birds of prey in Holland that I never noticed when I lived there and couldn't care less about birds.
Well, Then you have not visited the right places 
It is true that the main body of land in the Netherlands has suffered a loss of a lot of bird species, but also insects, butterflies, fish species etc. There are many waterways and small rivers for such a small are, but there has also been strong chemical polution of the water and soil.The largest of our rivers Rhine for instance used to house one of the large world salmon populations. But this population has been wiped out by a chemical polution so bad, that in the late 70's, the Rhine was declared dead, no fish at all or even the smallest of life forms had survived the barrage of chemicals that were dumped in the Rhine, mainly in the German "Ruhr" area.
Beautiful birds like the Kingfisher, Kestrel and white Stork were virtually extinct at some point in time, and had to be re-introduced (white Stork) or helped by programs to get cleaner water and less chemicals in the soil (Kingfisher and Kestrel). But it is an ongoing struggle to prevent a new downfall, and we need orginizations like out National Bird Protection, National Heritage, State Woodland protection and Environmental Defense to battle the drive of Politics and Businesses to exploit the little mass of land and the waters that we possess for economically beneficial activities. And to put this in context: economically beneficial activities at the expense of wildlife and nature in one of the richest countries of the world, so please feel free to draw your own conclusions on the ethics of the Dutch when it comes to dealing with environmental issues. 
Holland however is also located roughly halfway on one of the large bird migration routes from breeding grounds in the Nothern Scandinavian countries, Russia (Siberia) and Iceland to the wintering grounds in Africa, and as you may know, we have a very unique and large scale tidal area in the north, called the Frisian Isles featuring three large and two semi large islands, that runs all the way from the north western coast of Holland to the south western coast of Denmark. Due to a very low seawater level over a large area that falls dry and floods twice every 24hrs, there is an abundance of food for birds that pause their migration in may and september/october for about two weeks to gain weight and strength for the remainder of their flight.
Large populations of a large variety of birds can be found on and around the Frisian isles in may and late september/october, like the Red Knot, Spoonbill, Eider, Golden Plover, Avocet, Bar tailed godwit, Turnstone, Sanderling, Greenshank, Sandwich tern etc.
But for sure, in the woodlands, or what we have of it at all, and in the meadows, birds are disappearing. The Frisian isles are Unesco world heritage, so my hope and sole reason for doing bird photography, lies with this unique and beautiful area.
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, so I asked a friend if I could take some shots of her dogs to test the camera and AF and also some take some high ISO images in the forest. The animal and eye detection worked well although I think I could do some progress. The R5 can nevertheless compete with (and hopefully replace) my 1DX Mk II because the combo R5 / RF 70-200 (1923g) is
