As you might have noticed but probably not, I haven't been writing much lately. My life as a working father really starts to "bother" me (though Kasper is the sweetest boy alive, don't get me wrong). The first weeks of teaching are heavy (I have a full job in 4 days so that I can stay home on thursdays to look after my son), and therefor my energy level during weekends is rather low. I woreship every single hour of sleep so there have not been many moments of true and intesive birding this spring yet. Hopefully/surely things will change in october, with at least 2 Deception Tours weekends and a midweek on Vlieland with Karin and Kasper during my week of vacations in mid-october. I guess I will see a YBwarbler or two...
All my last "adventures" took place in and around the Lauwersmeer area, and more specifically in and around Bantpolder, my favourite area these day for it's fully loaded with birds. On the 17th, the headliner was a fantastic juvenile Pallid Harrier, that was hunting around me for a couple of hours in both Bantpolder as the Paessens-buitendijks area, providing splendid views and giving me the oportunity to not only study the plumage, but also the behaviour of this species, which is significantly different than its relatives. Pallids are very rapid, sometimes almost falcon-like hunters, using the combination of speed, acceleration, intelligence (for example, it uses ditches to approach prey without being seen) and agility to surprise its prey, while Hen and Montagu's Harriers are more relaxed, elegant birds in my humble opinion. Pictures of the bird are on my site http://www.pbase.com/martijnbot/recent
Yesterday I once again visited Bantpolder (2 Little Egrets, 2 Red-necked Phalaropes, 3 Peregrines, a Hen Harrier and a Goshawk, along with thousants of Lapwings, Golden Plovers and lots of other type of biomass), but also Jaap Deensgat (over 100 Ruddy Shellducks, a Whinchat and a Caspian Tern) and Zoutkamperplaat (Redstart, Merlin, Whinchat). Highlight, however, was the submerged field near Vierhuizen, which has turned into a true wader heaven due to the lower water level. Hundreds of Lapwings and Golden Plovers, good numbers of Spotted Redshanks, Little Stints, Wood Sandpipers and Ruffs along with some Curlew Sandpipers and Greenshanks. Best birds, however, were two juvenile Pectoral Sandpipers. One of them approached me at such close range that I just had to take some pictures, which can be seen on the site I mentioned earlier.
Today, Karin, Kasper and I spent two hours in (once again) Bantpolder, and saw the first five Lapland Buntings of this autumn.
Hopefully, my next contribution to this website will contain some names of nice autumn warblers, for I've been ignoring them for way too long now.
0 comments:
Post a Comment