Spring is in the air.

Lots of new life is born and temperatures will be warm again in the Netherlands.

We took the opportunity to explore a small nature reserve behind the Dutch dunes close to home and spotted lots of new life too.

In the reserve Scottish Highland cattle and Konik horses keep the vegetation in check. The Scottish highland cattle look fierce with all these big horns, but actually they are quite docile animals.

It crossed my mind that I felt more at ease with big sharks than these big horned animals. It is a thing about knowing what they will do, it is understanding their behavior. 

But everything can be learned, also to read cow´s behavior. So as time went by things changed, the animals relaxed and showed signs of acceptance.

A big cow nursed her very young calf right in front of our eyes.

She allowed us in her personal space even though she was a bit weiry at first about the presence of this crazy guy lying in the grass snapping pics with his camera

It took some time before I was done taking photos, so Sandy had to wait for a while.

But in the meantime she was making friends with a Konik horse foal too. It seemed really calm around people.

And then mom came to have a look at who was paying them a visit.

Real close!

I guess Sandy smelled too good ;-)