About

My name is Maarten. I live near Rotterdam and work as a backend developer. Most of the year I write code; from February through July I spend most weekends outside with a camera and a spotting scope, watching kestrels.

I started paying attention to Falco tinnunculus in 2019, the winter after I moved to the Netherlands from Belgium. A pair nested on the crane at the old Müller grain elevator — visible from the tram — and I became completely obsessed. That first season I made every beginner mistake: wrong focal length, wrong time of day, wrong field of view. I still have the blurry frames to prove it.

This site is where I put field notes that are too long for a tweet and too specific for anyone except other people who also wake up before sunrise to stand in a polder. If that's you, welcome.

What I photograph

Kestrels primarily — their hunting behaviour (hovering, stooping, prey transfer), nest activity (I monitor four boxes in South Holland and Zeeland), and flight. Occasionally other raptors if they cross my path: marsh harriers over the reeds, a wandering peregrine, the buzzards that cluster on fence posts in November.

I don't do portfolio photography. There's no shop here, no prints for sale, no clients. The photos serve the notes.

Gear

• Camera Sony Alpha 7 IV
• Main lens Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG DN Sport (Sony E)
• Backup Sony 70-350mm f/4.5-6.3 G OSS — lighter, goes in a backpack
• Scope Swarovski ATX 95 — for the nest box watching, not the camera
• Tripod Gitzo GT3543LS + Wimberley WH-200 head for the long lens
• Processing Darktable on Linux; occasional Photoshop for tricky exposures

Contact

Email: hello@torenvalk.top. I'm slow to reply during nesting season (April–June). Waarnemingen.nl if you're Dutch and want to discuss sightings properly.