New species for the Netherlands

In a heathed greenhouse in Nijmegen a small colony of Blue garden flatworms was found at te beginning of 2018. This Australian species has been found already at other countries but for the Netherlands this was the first time :

 
Recently 2 new bird-species were seen for the first time in the Netherlands:

- Pied crow - no visuable signs it was an escape but evenso still not 100 % sure it was a real wild bird

- Western red-wattled lapwing - this subspecies can be found in the wild in Turkey so it would be possible that the one seen this week on Texel is a real wild bird, it also showed no signs of being an ex-captive.
 
A pied crow was also seen in 2007, so not 100% new. I don't know this specific bird, but it's normal range is very far away from the Netherlands. Also it is a common bird in captivity with no legal reason to ring them (so more difficult to recognise when one escapes). Above that they are smart and strong birds that will take their chance if they see a way to escape from their aviary. So for me it must be an escapes bird.
 
@Stefan Verhoeven I thought so as well at first and disregarded the pied crow as a possibility too, definitely seeing as they are a rare Southern vagrant even in Morocco. Interestingly enough though, apparently the feather pattern and injuries on the bird are exactly the same as a bird that has been seen in 2018 in the UK (both in England and in Wales) in the past, where it also raised questions about its legitimacy. This bird is evidently used to either flying long distances overseas or following around ships, which in my opinion (and according to the majority of other Dutch birders) is an argument pro it being a real vagrant. That still doesn't mean it's going on the official Dutch list, though, since ship-assisted birds aren't counted on that list. I'm definitely interested in the decision of the rarity commission about this bird.
 
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Vision said:
since ship-assisted birds aren't counted on that list
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Except in the case of the House crow, where some birders argued that following ships is natural behaviour of this species, so those ended up on the Dutch list... But these are exactly the same people that argue that invasive species are thus also part of ecosystems because we live in the Anthropocene and shouldn't bother, which shows more about their ignorance and wanting to count birds than anything else.
 
lintworm said:
Except in the case of the House crow, where some birders argued that following ships is natural behaviour of this species, so those ended up on the Dutch list... But these are exactly the same people that argue that invasive species are thus also part of ecosystems because we live in the Anthropocene and shouldn't bother, which shows more about their ignorance and wanting to count birds than anything else.
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Actually, those have since been removed from the list again (which can be seen here) because the rule was indeed very inconsistently followed - you can't count some ship-assisted birds and not count others!

I'm not sure what my personal opinion of 'ship-assisted' birds and their countability is, actually. Generally my opinion is that there is no point during the process where a wild bird that follows or rides a ship loses its 'wild bird' status, so even though a bird would not have reached a location without mankind's help it ultimately is still the bird's own decision and the bird is definitely a wild bird. The feeling of it all changes, though, when the birds are being fed on board of a ship and thus essentially being lured over to another country by people - as was the case with the well-documented Iago sparrows in the Netherlands a few years ago.
I definitely think that a lot of birds on the Dutch and Belgian lists (Northern mockingbird, Common grackle, Grey catbird, Dark-eyed junco, Spanish sparrow, among others) that are currently being regarded as true vagrants are very unlikely to have made it across the Atlantic ocean without the help of a ship, though, which makes the entire ship-assist debate even more confusing - what do you do with probable ship-assists where there is no direct evidence of the birds having used a ship? What makes a Spanish sparrow or Grey catbird in the middle of a harbour so drastically different from a House crow? I don't have the answer to all of these questions, but it's definitely an interesting debate that is, in my opinion, often oversimplified!
 
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Vision said:
Actually, those have since been removed from the list again (which can be seen here) because the rule was indeed very inconsistently followed - you can't count some ship-assisted birds and not count others!
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So common sense won for once. That is good news.
 
lintworm said:
So common sense won for once. That is good news.
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Another issue with the House crow which is hardly known among birders is that in the midd-1980s a few shipments of House crows were imported by at least 2 bird-dealers. Because of the scientific name - Corvus splendens - they had hoped to recieve some nice-looking birds but when they arrived, they were not the splendid looking birds they expected !
After 3 months at the dealers-places only very few had been selled and suddenly at at least one of the dealers, the birds had gone... I don't say they had been released but it is of course possible...
 
At the beginning of 2021 a new fish-species ( for the Netherlands ) was catched by a sport-fisherman in "het IJ" near Amsterdam.
It's still not clear how the Striped bass ( aka Atlantic striped bass, Striper, Linesider and Rockfish ) - Morone saxatilis made its way from the North American coast to the Netherlands ( natural, in balast-water or someway else .... ).
 
New breeding-bird in the Netherlands : during 2020 a pair of Grey crowned cranes bred in the wild in the province of Limburg ! 2 chicks hatched but were not raised. The orgin of the parent-birds is known ( kept free-flying / escaped birds from a private keeper ) but evenso a first-time breeding attemp "in the wild" in the Netherlands.
 
In July 2021 3 strange fishes were catched near the Haringvliet sluizen. Researched on them proofed they were the first Pink or Humpback salmons ever catched in the Netherlands.
The Humpback salmon is an invasive species in Europe after the species was released in Russia. From there it has spread over Scandinavia, Ireland and Scotland and now thus also the Netherlands...
 
A new species not mentioned sofar was seen for the first time in 2019 in Friesland ( northern province in the Netherlands ), the Grey-headed lapwing. Found a short video of this first Dutch record :

 
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