The new year is truly off now! I decided last week that my school work could wait for a while. I'm gonna have to catch up for that, but still a good call. I have always worked better under time pressure anyway
. So instead of sitting all day at university writing reports and sending emails I went out birding four days in a row. I have reported my sightings of the first of those days in this thread already, but here's the account of the other three. Overall, this is the nicest start of birding in the new year I ever had!
On the second day of my 'mini-birdwatching holiday' I carpooled with some friends to make a round in the south of the Netherlands. The reason we went here is that one of my friends is from this region and he wanted to show some of his favorite birdwatching sites to us. Along the way we made stops at several lakes in the area. We saw some nice waterfowl such as a female smew, a nice group of Bewick's swan and a black-necked grebe. I also liked the large group of yellowhammer we saw at a heathland area. But the nicest sighting of the day were a group of redpoll that we could see very nicely through the scope. Redpolls are probably not special to any British birder on here, but in the Netherlands they are usually seen flying over during migration. In some years we have an 'invasion' of the species. This happens when there is a shortage of food in Northern countries and many redpolls move southward, resulting in a large influx in countries like the Netherlands. But this year is not such a year, and a good sighting of redpolls is uncommon o outside invasion years. In fact, these were the first birds I saw in the Netherlands that were not a distant flyover.
On the third day, I took a trip to Texel. Like
@Mr. Zootycoon, I'm not all that twitchy, but I sometimes go when a species is being seen that I particularly like. And the spectacled eider of Texel most definitely meets that criterium, not only because it is so rare in Europe (this one is the first for continental Europe) but also because I am fond of seabirds, particularly spectacularly plumaged arctic ones. I went there my public transport (about 3 hours by train+ferry to texel) and took an OV-bike (a bike that you can rent cheaply at train stations in the Netherlands, one of the better ideas of the Dutch railway services) to bike over the island. It was cold, I cycled with my heavy backpack with all my birding gear on for quite a long way and I had to get up very early, but it was well worth it. Already at the ticket counter of the boat, I got asked by the lady at the desk if I was coming to see 'that duck'. She told me that it had been a crazy madhouse with birders all week. People were coming all the way from Spain and Hungary to see the bird. The island was covered with birders, and I met many British birders throughout the day. I did, of course, first go to the spectacled eider location in the northwest of the island. There were quite some people at the bird, but not as many as I had expected. I set up my scope and started scanning and almost instantly found the bird. It was quite far out, but still visible quite well through the scope. I watched the bird for some time, but as it started drifting further and further out I decided to move on to the Slufter salt marshes. Here, I saw a large group of horned larks and twites. Both species are pretty special for an 'inland birder', so I was very happy with that. There were also many shorebirds and ducks and geese present here. Throughout the island, large flocks of geese and ducks are everywhere in winter. I managed to pick out the black brant (a subspecies of brant that the rather progressive Dutch taxonomy counts as full species, but won't count it here) that had been reported on the island in one of these flocks, as well as some nice whooper and tundra swans. In the afternoon, I went back to the spectacled eider, and this time the birds was much closer and I could even get some photos. There were also much less people and the atmosphere was nice and relaxed. After some time watching the bird I went south to the ferry harbour again. There, the icing on the cake were two long-tailed ducks and a greater scaup. Despite the cold, I really enjoyed the day and being out by bike on the island. I got many remarks from birders how I was 'tough' for cycling all over the island in the cold weather but I honestly prefer being outside all the time over hopping in and out of the car. It makes you appreciate the environment and the wildlife more, I think.
On the final day, I went to Zeeland to meet up with several other young birders from an online community. Another great day, with red-breasted goose (searching for a rarity like that is a lot easier when you have 30 capable birdwatchers scanning through all the flocks of geese), common loon, another long-tailed duck, a red-necked grebe, horned grebe, a nicely visible water rail and many more. We sadly could not find the Pacific loon that hangs around in Zeeland, but still a great day. My favorite sighting of the day was that of a jack snipe, that was found by another young birder using a thermal heat scope. I had seen a jack snipe once before, but that was not a good sighting. This time, we could study this stunning bird very well, a very good sighting.
One more remark that I want to make how much I appreciate having a scope. For the past few years, I birder mostly with my binos and camera, but a couple of months ago I decided that, after a long time saving, I wanted to buy a scope. I thought I would mostly use it to scan through flocks of waders or geese or ducks, but instead I find myself taking it almost all the time when I go birding. It helps you to appreciate your sightings so much more if you can really study a bird up close. It lifts many mediocre sightings to good sightings and good sightings to great sightings. Really happy that I bought it.
57. Long-tailed tit (Aegithalos caudatus)
58. Common redpoll (Acanthis flammea)
59. Common starling (Sturnus vulgaris)
60. Tundra swan (Bewick's swan) (Cygnus bewickii)
61. Smew (Mergellus albellus)
62. Gray wagtail (Motacilla cinerea)
63. Common merganser (Mergus merganser)
64. Goldeneye (Bucephala clangula)
65. Tundra bean goose (Anser serrirostris)
66. Black swan (Cygnus atratus)
67. Eurasian wigeon (Mareca penelope)
68. Northern pintail (Anas acuta)
69. Eurasian skylark (Alauda arvensis)
70. Yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella)
71. Mandarin duck (Aix galericulata)
72. Eurasian curlew (Numenius arquata)
73. Eurasian oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus)
74. House sparrow (Passer domesticus)
75. Ruddy turnstone (Arenaria interpres)
76. Herring gull (Larus argentatus)
77. Great black-backed gull (Larus marinus)
78. Common eider (Somateria mollissima)
79. Brant (Branta bernicla)
(Black brant)
80. Ring-necked pheasant (Phasianus colchicus)
81. Common redshank (Tringa totanus)
82. Spectacled eider (Somateria fischeri)
83. Red-breasted merganser (Mergus serrator)
84. Little egret (Egretta garzetta)
85. Horned lark (Eremophila alpestris)
86. Twite (Linaria flavirostris)
87. Gray plover (Pluvialis squatarola)
88. Common ringed plover (Charadrius hiaticula)
89. Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris)
90. Whooper swan (Cygnus cygnus)
91. Long-tailed duck (Clangula hyemalis)
92. Greater scaup (Aythya marila)
93. Pied avocet (Recurvirostra avosetta)
94. Collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto)
95. Barnacle goose (Branta leucopsis)
96. Red-breasted goose (Branta ruficollis)
97. Red-necked grebe (Podiceps grisegena)
98. Meadow pipit (Anthus pratensis)
99. Sanderling (Calidris alba)
100. Dunlin (Calidris alpina)
101. Common loon (Gavia immer)
102. Horned grebe (Podiceps auritus)
103. Common snipe (Gallinago gallinago)
104. Water rail (Rallus aquaticus)
105. Jack snipe (Lymnocryptes minimus)
106. Eurasian spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia)
107. Red-throated loon (Gavia stellata)
