Leuvenum

The Netherlands, 2 July 2026

The Leuvenumse Forest is a wooded nature reserve on the Veluwe and covers 837 hectares. You can see high sand dunes and dry heathland. The heathland can be even more beautiful in late August/begin September where the heathland colors purple and pink. Curious how that looks like? Watch our movie about colored heathland in Dwingelderveld.

This time we wanted to test our new equipment, including our 'ND8 Urth' filter in an area where the sun is reflecting on water, sand and on a sunny day inside a forest. The Leuvenumse Forest and Hulshorstersand is an area full of creamy sand and heathland so it looked like the perfect place for it. However, when we came out of the woods after walking and filming Nature decided to set up some wind so the sun quietly dissapeared behind the clouds and it started to rain softly, there goes the idea of reflection..
During the breeding season the Hulshorstersand is a resting place for breeding birds which means the walking paths are closed off (the breeding season is from March-August). This was quite a bit of a bummer no 2 but also easily to accept as we don't want to disturb Nature. The walking routes along the edges of the area are accesible all year round, so we have made a shot from a distance which looks pretty cool as well!

After the Hulshorstersand we went back into the forest where you find pine trees, old deciduous trees, black alders, willows and a winding Leuvenumse & Hierdense brook. There were a lot of falles trees along the paths for ground and food nutrition for wild animals like woodpeckers and if you look closer you can also see wild blueberries, mushrooms and special other wildlife which you have never seen before..
Next to our walking path we saw some leaves flying around the end of the stem of the fallen tree and a big hairy silhouette of an wild animal. Could that be a squirrel or maybe just a dog from someone? We haven't seen any humans the last couple of hours since we walk here so that shouldn't be it.. at least it needs to be an animal which we have never seen before and we thought 'keep your eyes open because you might never see this again!'

We came a little closer and closer, kept looking and searching for the big hairy silhouette through the branches and leaves and all of a sudden the big hairy silhouette was hopping right in front of us and showed their identity.. it's a pine marten!

The pine marten is rare in the Netherlands and rarely shows itself. They are listed on the Red List as a vulnerable species, the population in the Netherlands is about a few hundred individuals and we encountered a small little family of four! Pine martens are shy animals that depends on peace and quiet, old forests, and hollow trees to live in. The little ones had a nest high up in the tree, they were playfull and very quick. It was a lucky moment of minutes which we might never experience again but we captured it on film so we can watch it over and over and also share this beautiful moment with you! 

Every hike is special, you never know what you are going to see or if the place is suitable for shooting our film at all. As long as you live in the moment and take your time you can hook onto these things. Let us know what you think about the highlight of the pine martens in our movie of Leuvenum. Leave a like or comment on our YouTube channel, see full movie below.

See you outside!


- Tim and Dorien