BIRDING DIARY OF MARTIJN BOT

Sunday, January 29: Of gulls and geese

2012-01-30T20:45:00.001+01:00

Sander and I had a cold, but very effective day of birding today. We started off nicely and quietly at 10.45 AM, and headed towards Urk to twitch the two gulls seen there for the last two days; both an Iceland and a Glaucous Gull were found there, and judging the pictures showed fantastically. For me, it would mean my first ever adult Glaucous Gull, so I really looked forward to seeing this long awaited plumage. It took us ten minutes to find the 3CY Iceland Gull, and after a tip by an unknown fellow birder, the beautiful adult Glaucous was easily found. Two great birds, and amazingly my seventh Iceland Gull (of which 5 self-found/not twitched birds) and the second Glaucous Gull this winter. I really like winter birding so far.
But things were about to get even better, because we decided not to go to Den Oever but to spend the rest of the afternoon checking geese and whatever else is around near Workum and Makkum. At the second field we checked, I was quickly triggered by a very dark adult White-fronted Goose, that was chased by three fellow geese. I warned Sander ("it" would mean a new taxon for him!) and soon we were both troubling our heads about the identity of the bird. But ten minutes later, when we were able to study the bird carefully and in perfect circumstances (both its plumage as well as its behaviour in the group; it was rather clear that it was a solitary bird without any friends around), we were both convinced that we were looking at a perfect adult Greenland White-fronted Goose, a rather rare bird in our country recently! I tried to take some pictures, and when we were about to leave, the bird was friendly enough to cross the ditch flying, enabling me to take some necessary flight shots.
The next our was also very productive; first Sander found a nice 2CY Red-breasted Goose, fouraging on a corn field amongst Barnacles and White-fronts, and near Makkum, a large group of geese contained 4 adult Black Brants, 2 adult Pale-bellied Brants and 2 adult Red-breasted Geese, while the second Peregrine of the day was eating something very dead nearby.
A huge disadvantage of such a great day of birding is that I do not really feel like working the day after...
Pics of the best birds of today are on my website, http://www.pbase.com/martijnbot/recent

Saturday, January 21: Ameland

2012-01-22T12:45:00.000+01:00

Not specifically for seawatching today, my strategy consisted in taking the bus to Buren, and then walk eastwards and check all the gulls at the beach until reaching the east tip of Ameland. And then, very excited about all the rare gulls I found, walk back.
Judging the silence on the RBA, it's not a wild guess to say that something went wrong here. The first part of the plan was not too hard to complete succesfully, but the part about the "excitement" and "rare gulls" turned out a little different than I had hoped. When I finally reached the end of Oerd (more or less), I hadn't seen one bird (nor human being, by the way) worth remembering, except for maybe some Kittiwakes, Little Gulls, 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls and lots of northern argentatus-type Herring Gulls. But there was some good news nevertheless, because just when I was preparing myself for a long walk back (with the strong western wind in my face), a 4x4 stopped next to me and a friendly man asked me if I needed a ride back. An offer I couldn't resist, and after a rough beach ride (I normally hate these cars, but I had temporarily changed my opinion...), I was back were I had started within 10 minutes time. The time I had saved with this unexpected hitchhike, I spent on some useless seawatching (Fulmar, some Gannets, 11 Razorbills) and walking back to the boat. When I almost reached the ferry terminal, a huge group of Brants landed in the polder south of Nes, and to my surprise, the family of 6 Red-necked Geese was present in that group, but also two Black Brants and 2 Pale-bellies, while a Peregrine caused panic amongst almost all birds in the polder, among which a nice group of monedula Jackdaws. A rather good end to a disappointing day as far as species are concerned, but I found out I really don't mind being alone on a beach every know and then! I felt relaxed and reborn on the boat back.
Some pics, for example of a scary northern hooded Herring Gull, on my site http://www.pbase.com/martijnbot/recent

Saturday, January 14: Party on!

2012-01-15T10:56:00.002+01:00

The white-winged party continues in full swing, and I'm very glad to be a part of it. Today was another exceptional day, not only because I broke a record (I never saw 3 Iceland Gulls on one day), but mainly because I found two of them myself and I saw my first ever adult. But there's more. Both of the birds I saw and photographed somewehere along the Wadden coast between Ternaard and Wierum had clear dark markings in both the primaries as the secondaries, and those markings were most obvious and dark in the outer webs of the primaries (at least, that's what I see on the, albeit bad, pictures), pointing strongly towards Kumlieni. I realize that the variety in glaucoides and kumlieni is tremendous, and that it's very hard, if not impossible to say where dark glaucoides ends and kumlieni starts, but these pictures at least show a bird that strongly tends towards kumlieni (I've seen "worse" birds on the internet labelled Kumlien's Gull, also from breeding grounds). I'm afraid we'll never know for sure, but I really couldn't care less: no matter what they are, they made my day. If you're interested in opinios about the birds, check here and here As I said, a very nice bones in the afternoon was the adult bird in the harbour of Lauwersoog. Best of the rest today were some Rough-legged Buzzards (among which my first adult in a very long time), a Pale-bellied Brant, a Red-breasted Goose, 20 Shore Larks, some fly-by Lapland Buntings, 6 Hooded Crows and a very distant White-tailed Eagle.
For those of you interested: Friday afternoon there were rather large numbers of gulls at the gull roost in Groningen. I just found one Yellow-legged Gull (a nice 3CY) as well as a probable hybrid Caspian x Herring Gull, but I feel something better is about to be found here. Who's gonna do it!? Pics here

Friday, January 6: we start the way we ended

2012-01-12T21:13:00.000+01:00

First of all, I'd like to wish you (and myself, by the way) a happy and healthy 2012, with of course as many birds as humanly possible, little twitching and lots of self-found good ones and unexpected encounters.
My kick-off of 2012 was one I will remember for some time and was yet another fantastic sea watching day, comparable to the one of last week (it feels like autumn lasts a few months longer, great!). A record number of birders joined me to Ameland and weren't disappointed (at least, they shouldn't be), because after 5,5 hours of non-stop staring at the sea, we saw about 12.000 Kittiwakes, around 800 Fulmars, most of them of the dark morph, 2 (yes, two!) Iceland Gulls, 1 Little Auck, a Leach's Petrel (!), around 350 Razorbills (and I guess a great part of the 1750 birds we called Razorbill/Guillemots were also Razorbills), a Caspian Gull, 6 Great Skuas and 2 Pomarine Skuas, apart from all the commoner species. With such a start of the year, I almost feel like I should start a year list, but fortunately I've come to my senses in time. I love January!

Friday, december 30: best for last!

2012-01-02T12:54:00.001+01:00

No doubt we saved the best for last as far as seawatching in 2011 was concerned. A truely fantastic day it was, today in the sand (!) dunes near Buren, Ameland. Nine brave birders took the 7.30 boat, and were richly rewarded from the moment we settled and first watched through our telescopes. I first just couldn't believe what I was seeing. Literally everywhere I looked there were sea birds heading west: Gannets, Divers, Razorbills, Guillemots but most of all Kittiwakes and Northern Fulmars. Before we even realized that something amazing was happening, already thousands of Kittiwakes and hundreds and hundreds of Fulmars (lots of them of the "blue" morph!) had passed and a apparently never ending stream of birds was still continuing its way west. It just seemed like the whole population of Kittiwakes and Fulmars was smashed against the Ameland coast line. Until noon, it was just impossible to count in exact numbers, because birds passed over our heads, over the beach, through the brakers and as far as the eye could reach. The last two or three hour, numbers of birds decreased a little, but it was still well worth staying. When at three o'clock we called it a day (tired, cold and stuffed with sand), we had counted some 15000 Kittiwakes, 3200 Fulmars (almost half ot them of the dark and/or intermediate morph), 1500 Razorbills/Guillemots, and also some quality birds like Puffin (2), Red-necked Grebe (3), Little auk (1), Glaucous Gull (I personally checked all the 8000 large gulls passing overhead, but in a moment of inattention, fortunately someone else noticed this fine 1CY bird), Caspian Gull (6!), Yellow-legged Gull (2), Great Skua (15), Pomarine Skua (16) and Arctic Skua (1).
Check http://trektellen.nl/trektelling.asp?telpost=235 for the complete count, and www.pbase.com/martijnbot for some pictures. And check also www.windguru.cz for the wind forecasts for the coming week!

Sunday, December 25: White-winged Christmas presents

2011-12-25T20:37:00.000+01:00

Yesterday, Saturday, I spent the first day of my two-week Christmas vacations on Ameland. The second consucutive Saturday on the island was once again well worth the trip. Not that I saw breathtaking species; best ones probably were Pomarine Skua (8), Great Skua (4), Northern Fulmar (8) and Red-necked Grebe, along with a Black Brant at the Holwerd pier, but this time is was the quantaty that will be remembered. Incredible numbers of Gulls passed the dunes north of Buren, with for example some 5500 Kittiwakes, 2700 Common Gulls and hundreds and hundreds of Herring, Great Black-backed and Little Gulls. I was really hoping and maybe even expecting a "white-wing", but the best gulls turned out to be 3 Caspian Gulls, 2 adults and a 3CY. Not bad at all, but my visit to Hoornse plas last Friday also produced three of them, so something else would have been highly appreciated.
But no worries, because today it all turned out just fine. Yesterday, a Glaucous Gull was reported in the harbour of Lauwersoog, so when Kasper did his morning sleep, I decided to go and search for it. One of the first gulls I saw, albeit right at the other end of the harbour, was indeed the Glaucous Gull. I thought I could take it easy, but when I reached the spot, there was no sign of the bird. And no matter what we (Roef Mulder and I) did, we just couldn't find it anymore. I checked some locations around the harbour, but I only managed to find a nice (once again adult) Caspian Gull and a Kittiwake. When I was about to give up and decided do just one last check, I saw a "white-winged gull" flying right above me, quickly moving west. I was able to make some dull record shots, but more important at that moment was to inform Roef. After I had called him, I took a short look at my pictures, and to my huge surprise, the silhouette of an Iceland Gull appeared on the screen! When Roef arrived, we immediately headed west in search of the bird. We rather quickly caught up with it, somewhere near the Egbert Schulding Island, and while the bird continued west, we drove past the bird several times and took as many pictures as possible (of course, Roef has the fantastic ones, I only have reasonably good ones). Eventually, the bird disappeared west above Bantpolder.
The two "white-winged gulls" within one hour time on one location in the Top-of-Holland: thank you Santa! Check more pictures on www.pbase.com/martijnbot/recent

By the way, check our new ToH news letter on http://77.167.75.191/doc/doc00320.pdf

Sunday, december 18: update

2011-12-18T21:03:00.004+01:00

It's been three weeks, and about time for an update if I want to take this weblog seriously. Well, it's not too hard to summarize the last weekends. My last trip to Lauwersmeer was two weeks ago, and because sea watching turned out to be a huge disappointment that day (Lauwersoog harbour did host a Common Guillemot and a Red-necked Grebe though), I ended up amongst the inevitable geese. After some fruitless efforts between Lauwersoog and Paessens (I did manage to take a picture of a fly-by Caspian Gull), the skyline turned red when I left Moddergat; a group of 6 Red-breasted Geese, most probably the group that was seen on Schiermonnikoog a week earlier, landed right in front of my car and joined the present Brants that were already there. A fantastic experience, and a picture I will not soon forget. No matter how many Red-breasts I've already seen, this was definately something worth remembering, and as far as I know the largest group ever seen in our country.
The next days/weeks can be characterized by one word, a word that is also the name of my new addiction: gulls. Within the last three weeks, I spent no less than 11 afternoons (or better, the last hour of daylight of the afternoon) at Hoornse Meer, the place where many of the large gulls of Groningen and surroundings come to sleep. And it was more productive than ever before, with at least 5 different Caspian Gulls (amongs which 2 adults) and at least 6 different Yellow-legged Gulls (4 1CY, 1 2CY and a long-staying 3CY). Two more than probable 1CY Baltic Gulls were unringed and therefor worthless... Pics of almost all of these gulls can be found on www.pbase.com/martijnbot
The last day I want to share with you guys was yesterday, when finally, finally the wind turned north west, reason enough for Rommert, David, Jacob, me and 5 other ToH birders to take the ferry to Ameland, only the second time this year! It was well worth the effort, "it" being Ameland itself but also the trip to the island. The waiting at Holwerd brought a stunning huge Great Northern Diver, as well as a Black-throated Diver, some Kittiwakes, Little Gulls and 3 Purple Sandpipers. Ameland was tough (wind, sand and hail storms didn't make life easy for us), but we were compensated with numerous Kittiwakes (some 3500) and Little Gulls (about 500), 12 Pomarine Skuas (1 adult came flying in from the sea and right over our heads), 8 Great Skuas, 1 Little Auk (sweet little bird!), 25 Northern Fulmars, about 35 Black-throated Divers and some other to-be-expected sea birds. A cold but satisfying day, shame it wasn't november.

Sunday, november 27: Yellow-legs

2011-11-27T19:50:00.001+01:00

Another busy week and weekend (a wedding of some good friends was my first serious night out in months!) kept me from serious birding, but nevertheless I found some times to pay a visit to the gulls at Hoornse Plas. And it was well worth the effort, because at last, at last I saw a Yellow-legged Gull that looked like it's supposed to look, one that even I was able to easily recognize

But that wasn't all, because not far from this bird, another Yellow-legged Gull came to sleep, this time a splendid 3CY bird.

And to make the afternoon complete, a very fine and rather pale-eyed adult Caspian Gull joined the 400 (or so) Herring Gulls. Call me nuts, but this is enough for me to call this a successful birding weekend! More pictures can be found at my website http://pbase.com/martijnbot/recent

Sunday, november 20: SUNday

2011-11-21T20:41:00.000+01:00

A strange but all in all rather good day of birding baring in mind that all the rest of this country was covered in mist throughout the whole day. When we (Sander and I) started our day, the circumstances were no less that spring-ish, while we ended up in mist by the end of the afternoon; we had expected it to be the other way around. The way the mist caught up with us, at around 15.00 was rather impressive

As far as birds were concerned, there were no true surprises to be noted. A juvenile Black-necked Grebe in one scope view with a male Scaup at Nieuwe Robbengat was nice, 2 Lapland Buntings and my first Smews of this autums at Kustweg were ok, and a/the juvenile Caspian Gull in the harbour of Lauwersoog was stunning as ever.

On the Wadden dike near Bantpolder, the first Rough-legged Buzzard of the day was a very showy one. It caught and swallowed a mice without paying too much attention to us, and showed even better shortly after, when it was digesting that meal sitting on the well-known but very ugly fence. Three more RLB would follow during the rest of the day.

The last hours before the mist abruptly ended our day of birding nothing much was seen except for a hunting Short-eared Owl at Paessens, a Merlin at Bantpolder, some more Lapland Buntings and 2 Grey Wagtails near Anjum and 2 Pink-footed Geese at Kollumerwaard.
To be honest, it weren't the birds that stole the show today, it was the weather.

Wednesday, November 16: it's been a month...

2011-11-16T20:34:00.000+01:00

Yes, yes, don't worry. I'm still alive and kicking, just not writing. Due to My Busy Life (MBL) and an Unprecendented Laptop Crash (ULC)I haven't been able to do more than working, some incidental birding and trying to be a father for Kasper. That sounds a lot worse than it really is, but it means no rare birds for me (congratulations on the shrike, everyone...), no truly interesting stories and no contribution from me to the impressive list of rare dutch birds this autumn. The closest I got to fame to some extent was when, two weeks ago, I found a pipit that might very well have been a Blyth's Pipit near Paessens. The call as well as the structure in flight were reasons enough to get very alarmed, but unfortunately the bird disappeared east, never to be seen again.
What else? Well, after a fantastic week on Vlieland (first with Kasper and Karin, and after that a DT3 weekend), which is already so long ago that I can't be bothered looking back, I saw mainly Rough-legged Buzzards (including 2 for my garden list), a Russian Jackdaw, some Caspian Gulls (how I love them!), a putative Siberian Chiffchaff and some hybrids (in the form of gulls and geese). Pictures can stille be found on my website http://pbase.com/martijnbot
I'll do my best to do things that are worth writing about and if so, I'll do my best to write about it.

Sunday, October 9: Deception Tours 2 and more

2011-10-13T20:12:00.000+02:00

Another huge gap between today and my last post; hope you're still there and willing to keep on checking every now and then. It's just that my life nowadays is like a rollercoaster and in between jobs, being a father (or something like that) and birding there almost no time left for things like writing boring words on a poorly visited weblog.
Well, dry your tears and read this short update. Two weeks ago, that's Saturday the first of october, I finally saw and found my first autumn warblers, and although they were "just" Yellow-browed, I took some time to fully enjoy them. The first ones are always a joy, both for the eye as for the ear. I saw and heard three birds today, two at the Pomp campsite, and one at Robbenoort. Actually, I should have started this post another way, because the first bird of interest on this beautiful autumn day wasn't a YB Warbler, but a Red-throated Pipit at the Kustweg. The bird came flying in from the Wadden Sea and passed at about 50 meters distance, calling out loud. Nice, encounters with scarce pipits have always been rare in my birding life. Other things worth writing down today: 2 Red-necked Phalaropes at Ezumakeeg, a Firecrest and a Hen Harrier at Kustweg and at least one Grey Wagtail at Robbenoort.
The next day, Sunday, I saw a perfectly fine juvenile Long-billed Dowitcher, found earlier that day by Martin Olthoff. Perfectly fine because I had never seen such a fresh, juvenile bird before, and although it took some time to relocate it, the bird eventually cooperated rather well, providing good possibilities to study every feather. By the way, the location, a/the submerged field near Vierhuizen, was fully loaded with birds, mainly Lapwings and Golden Plovers but also considerable numbers of Little Stints, Ruffs, Dunlins, Curlew Sandpipers, Spotted Redshanks etcetera, so it might we worthwhile checking it a couple of more times in the near future, bearing in mind the numbers of nearctic waders in Great Britain and Ireland.
Last weekend, the second but my first Deception Tours weekend took place on Vlieland. Unfortunately and like every year there was no chance for me to get there on Friday morning already, but this year it was even harder for me to go to school as if nothing was happening, because while I was teaching, on Vlieland record-breaking numbers of Gannets and Great Skuas were passing, along with a lot of other sea watching pearls. All I could do was to finish my working day like I should and get to the sea as quickly as possible. At 17.35 I finally saw something that looked like a sea dike, so without knowing where I was (it was somewhere near Harlingen, because I had to catch the boat at 19.00) I parked my car, got my telescope and camera, hoping for some last birds. And believe it or not, the first bird I saw was a Leach's Petrel, shortly followed by a group of no less than 6 Pomarine Skuas! In the next 20 minutes, I could add 13 Arctic Skuas, 2 more Pomarines, 5 Great Skuas and 7 Gannets to my day (or actually half an hour) list. At 18.05 I left, and it turned out that the place where I had been watching called Roptazijl; a memorable place! 40 minutes later, I was on board the ferry to Vlieland, and just before sunset, another impressive group of skuas (8 Arctics) passed the harbour of Harlingen. What would tomorrow bring??
Well, the answer is both simpel and disappointing: almost nothing. It was hard to believe, but despite the apparently (still) perfect circumstances, the contrast with the day before was shocking. There were still some birds flying, but generally far away and in very small numbers. Some Arctic, one Pomarine and a handfull of Great Skuas, 2 Leach's Petrels, 3 Red-throated Divers, a Purple Sandpiper and a distant Sabine's Gull; it may sound not too bad but considering the circumstances and the breathtaking numbers of the day before it felt like a cold shower.
I spent the afternoon searching (vainly) for song birds, but eventually I just couldn't resist twitching the Two-barred Crossbills present near Stortemelk campsite. Two splendid males were found earlier this week and showed very irregularly near a small pool where they come in to drink. When they were reported, I knew I had to get there within 15 minutes to stand a chance and fortunately I succeeded. Because I was still wearing my seawatch-outfit, I sweated like a pig when I arrived, but it was worth the effort.
The next day my physical condition was once again tested. I found myself somewere far away from my bicycle when a Siberian Stonechat was reported, again at Stortemelk. A new species for me, and one I had not twitched ever before because I knew that one day I would either find one myself (yeah, right) or one would be found during a DT-weekend. But than, a horror scenario almost became truth, because when I finally arrived at Stortemelk and (literally!) raised my binoculars to see the bird, it decided to fly (far!) away in the direction of Duinkersoord, a very large and difficult to survey area, full of suitable habitat. And because almost everyone had already had the chance to enjoy the bird, there were only a few people willing or eager to join my search....
To cut a long story short, after 45 minutes of searching and after having lost hope, it went exactly as it almost always goes: the bird misteriously re-appeared where it was found. One problem for me: I was already near the Beach hotel. The next 15 minutes teached me that the sand dunes of Vlieland are very inconvenient when you're in a hurry, but eventually I managed to get back to Stortemelk and I saw (only) my third new species this year. Brilliant, and a Short-eared Owl and Great Grey Shrike were a nice bonus.
A Little Bunting, found by Rommert on the east tip of the island, was my next destination and the last thing we were able to do before the rain and wind came in to stay. The rest of the day was spent in and around the forest and produced lots of birds (new arrivals could be welcomed throughout the whole day, which made birding exciting despite te bad weather) but nothing to write home about.
Despite having missed one of the best seawatching days ever, it was a weekend worth remembering.
Pics on http://www.pbase.com/martijnbot

Thursday, Spetember 29: Attic birding

2011-09-29T17:56:00.000+02:00

For the first time since long I spent some time watching birds from my house, and one hour in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening produced a Peregrine (third this year from my house), Sparrowhawk, a Grey Wagtail, a Hawfinch, considerable numbers of Chaffinches and Meadow Pipits and actually a new house tich, a huge female Goshawk. Not bad.

Sunday, September 25: update

2011-09-25T17:40:00.000+02:00

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.

Saturday, September 10: F'veen

2011-09-11T14:40:00.000+02:00

On this third and probably last summer day of 2011, I once again opted for Fochteloërveen. During last saturday's attempt to reach the area I failed and ended up at de Veluwe, but today I did manage to get there. There's always enough to be seen here (birds, dragonflies, reptiles etc.), and my main target today was indeed a reptile; I really would like to see a Smooth Snake properly, after only some glimpses in the past.
At around 10 o'clock, I had reached the other end of the bicycle path and when I was following the first Common Hawker of the day, I found a Wryneck sitting in one of the small pine trees! A nice and unexpected surprise (ok, it's not uncommon for a surprise to be unexpected...) and to my great shame I have to admit that this bird was my first autumn wryneck ever... Strange but true, as far as I remember at least. Shortly after the Wryneck, a Honey Buzzard showed up, followed by first two and later three Short-toed Eagles. Rather late, if you ask me, normally the birds are gone by the beginning of september.
As far as my target was concerned, it took some hours, but eventually, when all my hope was long gone, I found a "nest" with 5 baby Smooth Snakes alongside the path. Not the monster I had in mind, but o.k. for now. And with 2 Ravens, the 2 Cranes, a Grey Wagtail, 2 Wood Larks, some hands full of Whinchats and Hobbies along with over 20 Common Hawkers and some Common Lizzards, it was once again a very satisfying day at one of the Netherlands's finest nature reserves.
Pictures on my new but still unfinished website http://www.pbase.com/martijnbot

Monday, September 5: end of vacation, start o the autumn

2011-09-05T21:07:00.001+02:00

Sorry for the silence, but I've been rather buzy creating a new photo website after the last one was misteriously killed by my friends at Fotopic. A very short update of last week's highlights: a nice 2CY Caspian Gull ringed in Poland on Monday, a fantastic day of seawatching on Ameland on Tuesday, with 2 adult Sabine's Gulls as undisputed highlights (check trektellen.nl for the complete count), a self-(re)found Glossy Ibis in Bantpolder-oost on Thursday (the one ringed in Spain and seen in Lithuania, Sweden and some locations in NL afterwards!), a nice day at Fochteloërveen on Friday, with among others birds like Raven (4!), Cranes, Great Grey Shrike (Homeyeri??), Short-toed Eagles and Black Woodpecker and Dragonflies like Common Hawker Aeshna juncea and Bog Hawker Aeshna subarctica, and last but not least a fantastic Little Bustard, found by Reinoud Vermoolen near Otterlo on Saturday.
If you're interested in the pics belonging to these highlights, please check my new website www.pbase.com/martijnbot/recent The site is still under construction, let's hope for a long and cold winter because it's a hell of a job!

Saturday, August 20: Keeg again

2011-08-20T21:13:00.000+02:00

My plan was to check waders in Westpolder today, but unfortunately I got there too late and the tide was already too high to host any kind of wader. Kustweg did produce another impressive sighting, because a quick count of Common Buzzerds above the Marnewaard resulted in 33 birds, joined by 3 Sparrowhawks and at least 5 Kestrels, all flying together above the freshly cut grasslands. Ezumakeeg is now by far the most interesting place in Lauwersmeer, but did not bring any new birds. Still, the 2 White-winged terns showed better than the days before, as did the Black Terns and Common Gulls. Delightful birds, shame about the lack of sun on the moments the birds came close.

Juvenile White-winged Terns at Ezumakeeg

Black Terns at Ezumakeeg

Little Gulls at Ezumakeeg

Friday, August 19: first tubenose of 2011...

2011-08-20T20:58:00.000+02:00

... and that's always a thing worth mentioning and a very thrilling moment most of all. Rommert, Sietse and I spent the morning on Ameland, and despite the not too favorable wind, we managed to see 7 Arctic Skuas and a beautiful and rather close Sooty Shearwater, along with considerable numbers of waders, 3 Scaups, some Black Terns and some Gannets. A very modest kick-off of the seawatching season, but at least it's a kick-off! Let's hope for good things to come.On my way back I made a stopover at Paessens, where a Sanderling, some Curlew Sandpipers, 2 Little Stints and a juvenile Montagu's Harrier were on show. Ezumakeeg still hosted a terrible lot of terns, among which 3 Caspian Terns (one adult showed incredibly) and still 2 juvenile White-winged Terns. 2 White-tailed Eagles, a Temminck's Stint and 2 Little Gulls completed my afternoon. In the evening, I substituted Jacob Bosma on a Caspian Tern count on all the known locations in and around Lauwersmeer where these birds like to spend the night. I was sent to the Waddensea dike north of Bantpolder and counted 12 birds coming in to sleep, along with dazzling numbers of gulls (mostly Black-headed and Common) and terns (mostly Common).

Avocets at Holwerd

Common Terns at Holwerd

Juvenile Montagu's Harrier at Peassens-buitendijks

One of the two White-winged Terns at Ezumakeeg

One of the Caspian Terns at Ezumakeeg

Thursday, August 18: Westhoek

2011-08-20T20:38:00.000+02:00

Bart-Jan and I spent this chilly summer day on the dike near Koehool and Westhoek, trying to find a bird that would turn us into heroes, but again we failed. In the three hours we spent on the two locations, we couldn't find one single bird that would stick into our memories (I'm trying to forget the 78 Snow Geese as soon as possible). On the other hand, finding rarities is not all, and espcially at Westhoek every birder will and should be impressed by the amounts of waders and the great variety of species. It's one of the most spectacular locations in the Netherlands, also because of the breathtaking, dynamic Wadden scenery. Finding a rarer wader would have finshed it off, but that didn't happen.
After a tour along the northern coast, we ended up in Ezumakeeg, where 2 juvenile White-winged terns amongst over 100 of Black Terns and masses of other birds brought a happy end to a somewhat disappointing day.

Wednesday, August 17: Back yard dragonflies

2011-08-17T20:23:00.000+02:00

Pairing Small Red-eyed Damselflies (Kleine Roodoogjuffer)

Egg-laying Brown Hawker (Bruine Glazenmaker)

Tuesday, August 16: Breebaart

2011-08-16T20:31:00.000+02:00

Another fruitless attempt to finally find that mega that just has to turn up once on the super location called Breebaart. I did find a reasonably good one, though. Kentish Plovers are very scarce here; I think there might even be 30 times more records of Broad-billed Sandpiper than Kentish Plover. On the gulls front, there were no big surprises. The same 2CY Yellow-legged Gull as two weeks ago was at Oterdum, while the adult was still on show in Termunterzijl. Unexpected visitor amongst the gulls in the little harbour: a Little Egret, that managed to catch a huge amount of fish within only a few minutes, and meanwhile showed nicely

Little Egret at Termunterzijl

Kentish Plover at Punt van Reide

Adult Caspian Gull at Termunterzijl

Monday, August 15: De Deelen

2011-08-15T17:33:00.000+02:00

Working hard on Kasper's species list of both birds and dragonflies lately, because today once again I took him out for a walk, this time to De Deelen near Tijnje. Beautiful area with a lot of dragonflies, the highlights being two Green Hawkers (Groene Glazenmakers).

Green Hawker - Aeshna viridis - Groene Glazenmaker

Sunday, August 14: Fochteloerveen

2011-08-15T12:27:00.000+02:00

An afternoon walk at Fochteloerveen with Karin and Kasper produced, during a scarce moment of sunshine, 3 Short-toed Eagles (as if it's nothing!) and a Honey Buzzard, while a pair of Cranes was feeding in a grainfield along the road towards Appelscha. Not bad for just two hours outside.

Saturday, August 13: Back from Sweden

2011-08-15T12:22:00.000+02:00

Karin, Kasper and I just returned from a week trip to southern Sweden (Skane). As was the case in almost the entire northwestern part of Europe, rain was a main theme, so it made no sense visiting Falsterbo or some other coastal location that might be interesting birding wise this time of year. A lot of reading, staying inside and making the best of it. On the scarce sunny moments, there is always enough to be seen, though, with on the very last day eventually some Two-barred Crossbills in a huge group of Common and possibly also some Parrot Crossbills. Despite having stood underneath the tree where at least two birds were calling (also the "trumpeter call"), unfortunately I was not able to get proper views on them. Flight views were the best I got. Other less surprising species seen: Golden- and White-tailed Eagles, Ospreys, Red Kites, Honey Buzzards, Ravens, Red-backed Shrikes and Cranes, along with some nice butterflies and some of the commoner Dragonflies.

Golden Eagle

Golden Eagle and Honey Buzzard

Honey Buzzard

White-tailed Eagle

Osprey

Red Kites

Red-backed Shrikes

Cranes

Raven

Sand Lizard

Wall Brown - Lasiommata megera - Argusvlinder

Silver-washed Fritillary - Argynnis paphia - Keizersmantel

Queen of Spain Fritillary - Issoria lathonia - Kleine Parelmoervlinder

Scarce Copper - Lycaena virgaureae - Morgenrood

Map - Araschnia levana - Landkaartje

Migrant Hawker - Aeshna mixta - Paardenbijter

Roe deer

Thursday, August 4: Breebaart and Gulls

2011-08-14T21:55:00.000+02:00

Another visit to Breebaart today, but except for an impressive number of Dunlins along with some Curlew Sandpipers, Little Stints and a Peregrine there was nothing much to be seen (or I couldn't find it at least). Termunterzijl was todays' highlight with a stunning (yes, I think they are!) adult Caspian Gull and two (!) Yellow-legged Gulls; a juvenile and a 2CY bird.

Ringed Plovers (mostly)

Wheatear

Dunlins (mostly) in Breebaart. Please send me an email if you do find the Broad-billed Sandpiper on one of these pictures (it's there, positive!)

Caspian Gull in Termunterzijl

Tricky juvenile Yellow-legged Gull in Termunterzijl

2CY Yellow-legged Gull in Termunterzijl

Wednesday, August 3: Peassens

2011-08-03T14:56:00.000+02:00

Checked the high tide roost and the pools around Peassens this morning. Enough to see, good numbers of birds and species, but no rarities. Award for best bird went to a female Kentish Plover that was in the company of about 90 Ringed Plovers in a small mud pool behind the dike. Best of the rest: some 35 Little Stints, 9 Curlew Sandpipers, a Peregrine and a Ruddy Shelduck (on the Wadden Sea in the company of Common Shelducks!). Most of the waders were too distant to properly check, a rather frustrating thing on this location.

Tuesday, August 2: Eemshaven -> Lauwersmeer

2011-08-02T20:50:00.000+02:00

Result: nothing. Well, a lot of birds, but nothing worth informing you about, leaving me with no other option than to leave you with only some pictures of today.

Temminck's Stint

Painted Lady (Distelvlinder)

Brown argus (Bruin Blauwtje)

Black- and Common Tern

Common Terns

Sunday, July 31: Limburg and Zeeland

2011-07-31T21:08:00.001+02:00

I just got back from a family-vacation in Limburg. I've pretty much enjoyed the scenery and the richly vegetated forests, but to be honest I didn't see nothing really spectacular. OK, a lot of Central European Treecreepers, some Green- and Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (only heard Middle Spotted on two locations), 4 Grey Wagtails, a Kingfisher, some Honey Buzzards and the commoner wood species like Marsh and Crested Tit, Hawfinches and Goshawks. Unfortunately, the weather circumstances were very unfavorable for butterflies and Dragonflies, so I didn't even bother.

Central European Treecreeper (Kortsnavelboomkruiper)

On the way back to Zuidhorn, news broke about the discovery of a summer-plumaged (!) Spotted Sandpiper. I really did not feel like going immediately (although the time would have allowed me to), but on sunday the will to see this long expected and beautiful species beat the growing resistance against twitching. And looking back, there are two conclusions to be drawn: twitching as a phenomenon sucks indeed, but if I want to see beautiful creatures like this yankee wader, I sometimes just have to submit myself to the masses... And in the end, it was more than worth it. Bart-Jan and I spent almost 2 hours with the bird, a beauty indeed. If this would have been a juvenile, I wouldn't have gone to see it, but this plumage is just irrestistable. Sorry for the bad record shots, you get the idea.

Spotted Sandpiper (Amerikaanse Oeverloper)

After BJ had dropped me off, Karin Kasper and I visited some friends in Groningen and on our way back home, we made a short detour to see the juvenile Night Heron near Foxhol. It seems to be standing on the same branch for at least two days now, so it wasn't really a challenge finding it.

Night Heron (Kwak)

Thursday, July 21: Nothing, really

2011-07-21T20:20:00.000+02:00

Just a short message to let you know that I really do my best, spend much time outside, but do not find nor see anything I remember the day after. My main focus was on waders, but apart from some predictable stuff (like Temminck's Stints, Red-necked Phalaropes etc.) there's no news. I did see the first juvenile large gulls (Lesser Black-backs), so the "horror" starts again; I just don't get to know them, no matter how hard I try.
Because the weather was far better than the expectations suggested, I did even find the time to once again check the dragonfly-reserve around the corner. Much to my joy, I had already concluded some weeks ago that this year again the Common scarlet-darter (Vuurlibel) were present, but today I managed to see four indivuduals chasing each other above one of the pools. This suggests a rather healthy population, which is nice and quite unique for a location like this. Since I found them in 2009, they have been present for three summers in a row, and hopefully the population is here to stay.

Baby LBBGulls

Carbo-type Cormorant. Not particularly large, by the way.

Common scarlet-darters

Sunday, July 17: it's wader time!

2011-07-17T21:19:00.000+02:00

Mid-july, rain, wind, the ideal circumstances for waders! Two days ago I already visited Ezumakeeg (5 Red-necked Phalaropes, 27 Temminck's Stints and a Kentish Plover as highlights), today I opted for Breebaart. First positive thing of the day: it was sunny and warm (no kidding!). Nothing like what the weather men predicted, circumstances were pleasant and ideal for what I came to do. Second positive thing: there was enough to be seen. Old-fashioned, hardcore wader watching brought no less than 4 Broad-billed Sandpipers along with thousands of Dunlins and hundreds of Curlew Sandpipers and Red Knots. At Punt van Reide, I found another BB-sand, two Little Stints and a Temminck's Stint. Again, like so many times before, no true rarities, but it was fantastic nevertheless. The sounds and sights when the immense groups move from one place to another are incredibly breathtaking and make you feel fortunate to be living not too far away from an impressive reserve like Breebaart!
At the Oterdum-peer, a 3CY Caspian Gull amongst some 40 large gulls was a nice bonus.

Some of the at least 4 Broad-billed Sandpipers

Strange buffy wader, extremely early and light 1CY Dunlin??

Arctic Terns

Juvenile Yellow Wag

Casp

Sunday, July 10: Close encounter with Great Spotted Cuckoo

2011-07-10T21:00:00.002+02:00

Yesterday, a Great Spotted Cuckoo was found in some farmlands near Noordbroek, Groningen. Because I wasn't in the opportunity to visit the bird immediately, I had to wait until today to see this new ToH-bird for me, but in retrospect I don't mind at all.
The bird proved to be of the flying and shy type, covering huge distances and showing only at considerable range. At least, for the majority of the birders that came from all over the country to see it. I had a lucky moment, maybe combined with some smart thinking (yes, yes, wonders will never cease!), because when the bird had just been seen flying far away from us, all the twitchers ran to their cars to follow or refind the bird. I (alone!) decided to stay on the location where it had been found yesterday, hoping that that would be the place where it would eventually return. And after only several minutes, this is exactly what happened. The bird came flying straight towards me and landed on its apparently favourite but undoubtedly ugly fence. I almost didn't dare to move, because it was posing at literally 10 meters from me, and obviously wasn't aware I was there. It allowed me to lift my camera and take some pictures (unfortunately, there were still some plants in front, but I won't complain), but the rattling sound drew its attention and made it fly away to the edge of a nearby farmland, where it subsequently stayed for at least 3 hours.
Some Montagu's Harriers and a migrating Common Swallowtail (Koninginnepage), my first ever in the Top of Holland, completed this pleasant morning in this not much frequented eastern part of Groningen.

Saturday, July 9: Guiding in Lauwersmeer

2011-07-10T20:28:00.000+02:00

Birding is good, birding for money is even better. Today I guided an American couple through Lauwersmeer NP (www.birdingholland.com), and because the rain spoiled our morning we had quite some catching up to do in the afternoon. Without seeing something truly huge, i.m.h.o. we did a rather good job. In 4 hours, we collected species like Caspian Tern, Marsh Sandpiper (2), Temmincks Stint (3), Kentish Plover, Curlew Sandpiper (30), Little Stint (8), Black Tern (2), Little Gull (3), Bittern (flying), White-tailed Eagle, Red-backed Shrike (male), Corn Crake (calling at about 4 meters distance!), Quail, Savi's Warbler and Montagu's Harrier, all birds they do not see very often. At 17.30 I dropped them off at their hotel; and they gave me the impression that they'd had a good day. Maybe they're good actors.

Saturday, July 2: Dwingelderveld

2011-07-02T21:14:00.001+02:00

A rather strong and chilly wind and hardly any significant sunshine; all in all not the circumstances one wishes in this time of year, but in the afternoon I decided to give it a chance and drive to Dwingelderveld for Dutterflies and maybe Dragonflies. Looking back it was no bad choice, because I did manage to find the species I was hoping for, the Cranberry Blue (Veenbesblauwtje). A small pool right next to the path allowed me te have fantastic views on at least 3 individuals. Another nice surprise was called Purple Hairstreak (Eikenpage); I don't see them too often... Reptiles added Adder and some Common Lizzards to the day list. Here are some pics of this afternoon, one of the day before yesterday (when a Hedgehog came around for dinner, to the surprise of my cat) and one from last week on Saint Martin showing a heroic action of the person writing this text. Fortunately, you will never know how I landed.

Cranberry Blue - Plebejus optilete - Veenbesblauwtje

Purple Hairstreak - Neozephyrus quercus - Eikenpage

Ringlet - Aphantopus hyperantus - Koevinkje

Myrmeleotettix maculatus - Knopsprietje

Cat and Hedgehog

Me Tarzan, you....?

June 19 - June 26: Saint Martin

2011-06-29T12:12:00.003+02:00

I just got back from a week trip to the island of Saint Martin. I went there for working purposes, but also took advantage of the opportunity to visit my two sisters living here and of course do some necessary birding. Saint Martin is not known for its wealthy avifauna, but because birding was far from the main purpose of the trip, and the moments I was able to do some birding were limited, I was glad that even I was able to say that when I left I had more or less seen what could be reasonably expected.
This is the trip list, including an incredible amount of pictures (sorry for that!).

1. White-cheecked Pintail - Anas Bahamensis

2. Ruddy Duck - Oxyura jamaicensis

3. Pied-billed Grebe - Podilymbus podiceps

4. Yellow-crowned Night Heron - Nyctanassa violacea

5. Green Heron - Butorides virescens

6. Cattle Egret - Bulbulcus ibis

7. Great Blue Heron - Ardea herodias

8. American Egret - Ardea alba

9. Little Blue Heron - Egretta caerulea

10. Snowy Egret - Egretta thula

11. Magnificent Fregatebird - Fregata magnificens

Chased by two Grey Kingbirds

12. Brown Pelican - Pelecanus occidentalis

13. Masked Booby - Sula dactylatra

Several birds seen in a large feeding flock of about 300 Boobies far at sea.

14. Brown Booby - Sula leucogaster

15. Red-billed Tropicbird - Phaethon aethereus

All pictures taken on Saba

16. American Kestrel - Falco sparverius

17. Common Moorhen - Gallinula chloropus

18. Caribbean Coot - Fulica caribeae

19. American Oystercatcher - Haematopus palliatus

20. Black-necked Stilt - Himantopus mexicanus

21. Grey plover - Pluvialis squatarola

22. Semipalmated Plover - Charadrius semipalmatus

23. Wilson's Plover - Charadrius wilsonia

24. Killdeer - Charadrius vociferus

25. Short-billed Dowitcher - Limnodromus griseus

26. Greater Yellowlegs - Tringa melanoleuca

27. Willet - Tringa semipalmata

28. Ruddy Turnstone - Arenaria interpres

29. Semipalmated Sandpiper - Calidris pusilla

Male and female? See difference in length and shape of bill

30. Hudsonian Whimbrel - Numenius phaeopus hudsonicus

Side by side with a Willet

31. Lesser Black-backed Gull

32. Least Tern - Sternula antillarum

33. Royal Tern - Thalasseus maximus

34. Cabot's Tern (American Sandwich Tern) - Thalasseus s. acuflavidus

34a. Cayenne Tern - Thalasseus s. eurygnathus

35. Sooty Tern - Onychoprion fuscatus

Several birds seen from a very shaky ferry between Saint Martin and Saba

36. Laughing Gull - Leucophaeus atricilla

37. Eurasian Collared Dove - Streptopelia decaocto

38. Zenaida Dove - Zenaida aurita

39. White-winged Dove - Zenaida asiatica

40. Common Ground Dove - Columbina passerina

41. Scaly-naped Pigeon - Patagioenas squamosa

Picture taken on the island of Saba

42. Mangrove Cuckoo - Coccyzus minor

43. Green-throated Carib

44. Antillean Crested Hummingbird

45. Caribbean Elaenia - Elaenia martinica

46. Grey Kingbird - Tyrannus dominicensis

47. Pearly-eyed Thrasher - Margarops fuscatus

48. House Sparrow - Passer domesticus

49. Yellow Warbler - Dendroica petechia

50. Carib Grackle - Quiscalus lugubris

51. Black-faced Grassquit - Tiaris bicolor

52. Lesser Antillean Bullfinch - Loxigilla noctis

53. Bananaquit - Coereba flaveola

Of course I also saw lots of butterflies, some mammals and reptiles and several Dragonflies; here a small selection of pictures.

Caribbean Bottlenose Dolphin, seen between Saba and Saint Martin

Flying Fish sp.

Land Crab sp.

Band-winged Dragonlet - Erythrodiplax umbrata

Rambur's Forktail - Ischnura ramburii

Skimmer spec. - Orthemis spec.

Great Pondhawk - Erythemis vesiculosa

Wandering Glider - Pantala flavescens

Band-winged Dragonlet - Erythrodiplax umbrata

Skimmer spec. - Orthemis spec. Female of the "pinkish" male above

Lesser Antillean Iguana? - Iguana delicatissima?

Ever wonderd what makes that typical, whistling sound you hear everywhere on the Antilles just after dusk? It's this little guy!

Lesser Antillean Whistling Frog

Make sure you don't get stung by this little cuty. It's a Tiger Mosquito, it flies and feeds only in the daytime and at dusk and dawn, and is a possible carrier various viral diseases like for example dengue... I got stung three times by one of its sisters, but I'm feeling ok so far, thank you.

Tiger Mosquito

Tuesday, June 14: 110

2011-06-14T20:35:00.000+02:00

This morning I was able to add number 110 to my garden/house/property list (I count everything seen or heard from my house or garden), and it wasn't one I was expecting really: for about seven minutes, a Golden Oriole was singing somewhere in the park in front of my house, but I could hear it loud and clear from between the sheets (!). And yes, I was awake.

Sunday, June 12: Limburg

2011-06-13T17:45:00.003+02:00

Once or twice a year, it has almost become a good tradition, Willem-Jan, Marnix and I (this time joined by Jacob Poortstra ) visit Limburg to "do" some of the dragonflies and butterflies we will probably never find in the Top-of-Holland. It's always a tremendously long day/drive, but most of the time is fruitfull just the same. My alarm clock rang at 4.30 am, and at 6.00 am the company was complete and we were on our way.
First stop was the location where two weeks ago a small population of Southern Damsels (Coenagrion mercuriale, Mercuurwaterjuffer) was discovered. Unfortunately, and despite a three hour search, we couldn't relocate them; I did find a marvellous and rather early Purple Hairstreak (Neozephyrus quercus, Eikenpage) warming up on a reed branch, though. A bad start of the day, but things would turn out just fine, because all the other things worked out just as we planned and even better. The White-letter Hairstreak (Satyrium w-album. Iepenpage) was a question of getting out of the car and looking up, while the Lesser Purple Emperor (Apatura ilia, Kleine Weerschijnvlinder) played hide and seek but eventually gave itself up fantastically.
Sint Pietersberg produced a huge surprise: we were just in time (but a little too late at the same time) to see a Large Tortoiseshell (Aglais polychloros, Grote Vos) flying away. Had we arrived a minute earlier we would have seen it feeding on the ground, but arriving 30 seconds later would have left us empty handed. Mixed feelings on this one, but we got some binocular views and that's more than we could have hoped for beforehand.On the dragonfly front, Pietersplas was good for Broad Scarlet (Favonius quercus, Vuurlibel), Brilliant Emerald (Favonius quercus, Metaalglanslibel) and splendid views on Goblet-marked Damsels (Favonius quercus, Kanaaljuffer), while two Honey Buzzards flew over.
Last stop was a location near Vaals, the best (?) place to see Dainty Damselfly (Coenagrion scitulum, Gaffelwaterjuffer) in the Netherlands. And they were numerous and easy to find indeed, but as we searched along, we found something a little more exciting: while checking all the Skippers (Dikkopjes) and expecting them to be Large Skippers (Ochlodes sylvanus, Groot Dikkopje), lots, if not most of them turned out to be Small Skippers (Thymelicus sylvestris, Geelsprietdikkopje); I think I must have seen at least 20 of them, but I guess there were even more for we did not have time to check the whole area. It really looked as if this this were a true (new?) population of this scarce species. There were some Large and Essex Skippers (Zwartsprietdikkopje) present, but their numbers were low compared to Small Skipper. Nice and unexpected.
One of the good things of going on a trip like this with Marnix and Willem-Jan is the fact that they also pay attention to grasshoppers, something I don't know nothing about. It's hard to miss them while searching for butterflies and dragonflies, and it might be something "for the future". For now, at least I've made my first steps into this world, as the pictures below show. Please correct me if you don't agree on the ID...

Purple Hairstreak (Neozephyrus quercus, Eikenpage)

White-letter Hairstreak (Satyrium w-album. Iepenpage)

Lesser Purple Emperor (Apatura ilia, Kleine Weerschijnvlinder)

Small Skippers (Thymelicus sylvestris, Geelsprietdikkopje)

Goblet-marked Damsels (Favonius quercus, Kanaaljuffer)

Banded Demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens, Weidebeekjuffer)

Dainty Damselfly (Coenagrion scitulum, Gaffelwaterjuffer)

Meadow Grasshopper (Chorthippus parallelus, Krasser)

Roesel's Katydid (Metrioptera roeselii, Greppelsprinkhaan)

Large Gold Grasshopper (Chrysochraon dispar, Gouden Sprinkhaan)

Great Green Bush-Cricket (Tettigonia viridissima, Grote Groene Sabelsprinkhaan)

Blue-winged Grasshopper (Tettigonia viridissima, Blauwvleugelsprinkhaan)

Common Spotted Orchid (Tettigonia viridissima, Bosorchis)

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Limburg, as if we were on a short vacation!

Saturday, June 11: Winter birds

2011-06-13T16:26:00.001+02:00

As a result of the lack of shorebirds and other things of interest in this time of year, out of complete desolation, I've checked gulls and cormorants along the Wadden coast, things I would normally only do in winter... It war rather useless, because most of the mature gulls are Lesser BB Gulls, and the immature ones are close to irrecognizable. Can anyone tell me what this is, for example?

In the colony of cormorants at Egbert Schuldinkeiland was (again) at least one birds appearing to be of the nominate race carbo.

Hello!? Are you still there...?

Common Whitethroat at Zoutekwel, Marnewaard

Sundag, June 5: Engbertsdijksvenen

2011-06-05T21:29:00.000+02:00

A family visit to pick up Kasper today, but I took advantage of some spare hours in the afternoon to sneak out (of course not, what person do you think I am!?) to pay a visit to an area closest to the house of my parents in law that might be interesting, which turned out to be Engbertsdijksvenen. A bit of nostalgia too, because I used to go there a lot back when I was a boy living in Hardenberg (these times are long gone, thank God!). Back then, I came for birds, now my focus was on Dragonflies. I had absolutely no idea what to expect, so I was very surprised to find at least 3 Western Clubtails (Gomphus pulchellus, Plasrombout) here. I guess it's known amongst the people frequenting this area, and the habitat looks perfectly suitable indeed, but it made my afternoon. Two Brilliant Emeralds (Somatochlora metallica, Metaalglanslibel) along with good numbers of Emperor Dragonflies (Anax imperator, Grote Keizerlibel), some Hairy Dragonflies (Brachytron pratense, Glassnijder), four White-faced Darters (Leucorrhinia dubia, Venwitsnuitlibel) and 3 Black-necked Grebes made it a more than pleasant Sunday afternoon walk.

Western Clubtails - Plasrombouten

Brilliant Emerald - Metaalglanslibel

Teal with one of her six chicks

Saturday, June 5: birds and Dragonflies around the corner

2011-06-04T16:15:00.002+02:00

No time for biring today; it's our first weekend ever without Kasper around (he's staying at his grandparents), so we finally have some time for ourselves. But just before we handed him over, I quickly checked the Minikeeg and the small dragonfly reserve around the corner (situated next to each other, what more can you wish?). The Minikeeg, just as his big brother, is starting to suffer from the continuing dryness, but is still looking very promising indeed. And my visit produced three new birds I had not seen here before: 3 males Common Teal, a pair of Shovelers and a Green Sandpiper could be added to the growing list.

Green Sandpiper

The dragonfly part was most of all interesting because I managed to obtain a lucky flight shot on one of the two Green-eyed Hawkers present. Other species present here were Red-eyed Damsels (Grote Roodoogjuffer), Emperor Dragonfly (3) (Grote Keizerlibel), Four-spotted Chaser (Viervlek) and Black-tailed Skimmer (Gewone Oeverlibel).

Not bad for an amateur, is it!?

Friday, June 3: wrong choice

2011-06-04T16:03:00.000+02:00

Despite yesterday's "success", I couldn't resist the waders today. Wrong choice, looking back, because I checked almost the whole Groningen Wadden coast (Breebaart, Oterdum, Eemshaven, Ruidhorn, Westpolder), drove way to many kilometers and didn't see a thing. OK, several hundreds of Sanderlings at Westpolder and two long-staying Black-winged Stilts next to a 3CY Caspian Gull at Ruidhorn, that's what I call nothing on a spring day.
Talking about Ruidhorn: it's become a fantastic new wader reserve, but I got both pissed and disappointed when I witnessed the 2 newly constructed bird observation points here. How bloody difficult can it be to construct something that's not too ugly, well situated but most of all COMFORTABLE IN USE for the people that it's build for. I can not think about one single shelter, wall or other type of observation point that fits all three criteria mentioned above, and this monstuous thing at Ruidhorn was no exception. If it's beautiful or not is a subjective thing, it is well situated (back light throughout most of the day), but who the f#*% was the brain behind the holes in this wall!!?? I had to either sit on my knees, stand on the tip of my toes, or jump to be able to look through them. Some corners of the area were simply invisible because the hole was situated at 2,20 metres altitude! Ridiculous and unbelievable... I repeat the question: how hard can it be....

Thursday, June 2: 2 Short-toed Eagles!

2011-06-02T20:30:00.001+02:00

Sunny and warm, so I opted for dragonflies again today. Because I wanted to see if numbers are increasing, if this is gonna be the good year the "experts" predict, and because I was hoping to finally obtain the picture of a Dark Whiteface going beyond the level of record shot, I choose to visit Delleboersterheide once again. And after an hour of waiting and drawing the conclusion that numbers are still rather low, one male was kind enough to pose right next to the newly constructed observation platform. Thank you very much.

Dark Whiteface (Leucorrhinia albifrons - Oostelijke Witsnuitlibel)

Bad picture, but makes clear how easily recognizable the creatures are even in flight.

After having accomplished this mission, I continued my usual walk through this great area. When I entered the central part of the reserve, I immediately saw a huge white-headed raptor sitting in a tree. It was not too hard to see that it was a Short-toed Eagle, the same bird that Rommert saw here last Monday.

Hoping for some good and close views on this rare creature, I decided to just sit and wait. And this strategy payed off almost immediately. At first, it looked like the bird turned the wrong was (for me, at least), but after an acrobatic turn, it headed straight towards me, and two minutes later, I could convincingly say that I had just seen my best Dutch Short-toed Eagle ever.

Short-toed Eagle at Delleboersterheide. Thrilling!

Cuckoo at Delleboersterheide

After this great encounter, along with sightings of Wood Lark, Lesser-spotted Woodpecker, Golden Oriole, Hawfinch and Grass Snake, I headed to my second destination of the day, Lindevallei. As usual, there were amazing numbers of Dragonflies, amongst which were rarities and scarcities like Scarce Chaser (Libellula vulva - Bruine Korenbout) and Yellow-spotted Emerald (Somatochlora flavomaculata - Gevlekte Glaslibel).

Scarce Chaser - Bruine Korenbout

Red-eyed Damselflies (Erythromma najas - Grote Roodoogjuffer)

Emperor Dragonfly (Anax imperator - Grote Keizerlibel)

Green-eyed Hawker (Aeshna isoceles - Vroege Glazenmaker)

When I was about to get back to my car, I saw 2 Honey Buzzards flying by, shortly followed by another, much larger raptor. It was flying away from me, but I immediately knew it was something good. Fortunately, the bird decided to circle (albeit only once), providing me good views on both its upper- and his underside, and guess what: it was another, but different Short-toed Eagle! Some ten seconds later, the bird disappeard behind some high trees, leaving me with a fantastic sighting but unfortunately without pictures.
Conclusion of the day: I see more and better birds when I switch my focus to Dragonflies. Guess what I'm going to look at tomorrow!

One of the two Honey Buzzards at Lindevallei Even a picture like this of the ST Eagle would have been very welcome... Can't have it all.

Monday, May 30: Delleboersterheide

2011-05-30T21:20:00.000+02:00

Today Rommert found a Short-toed Eagle at the Delleboersterheide, and hoping for some close views once and for all (the area is far smaller and more accessible than Fochteloerveen), I decided to go there once I got home from work. The trip did not bring the desired result; I saw the bird but even further than I usually see them in Fochteloerveen. A Golden Oriole, a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, some Hawfinches and a pair of Pied Flycatchers all showed better.

Pied Flycatcher

Big advantage of this location: there are also Dragonflies to keep you entertained. And they indeed did their best: I saw my first Small Whitefaces (Venwitsnuitlibel, Leucorrhinia dubia) and Banded Damoiselle (Weidebeekjuffer, Calopteryx splendens) of the year and got some great views on at least three males and one female Dark Whitefaces (Oostelijke Witsnuitlibel, Leucorrhinia albifrons).

Dark Whitefaces (Oostelijke Witsnuitlibellen)

Small Whiteface (Venwitsnuitlibel)

Pool Frog (Poelkikker)

Sunday, May 29: Wind and waders

2011-05-29T19:32:00.001+02:00

Nothing special today, still a lot of wind and good numbers of waders. It's almost impossible that not even one rarity could be found amongst them; there were enough birders doing their thing.

Hugh numbers of (mainly) Ringed Plovers, with some Curlew Sands, Little- and Temminck's Stints and a Red-necked Phalarope amongst them. Pic just to get the idea and see how dry Ezumakeeg currently is; if this goes on, we might start searching for Stone Curlews and Cream-coloured Coursers this summer!

Still hundreds of Sanderlings on the Waddensea near Westpolder. This is just a tiny part of the group.

A long walk at Zoutkamperplaat produced a Quail, a Icterine Warbler and a Fallow Deer during a moment of inattention.

Fallow Deer (Damhert / Dama dama) at Zoutkamperplaat

Saturday, May 28: Waders and wind

2011-05-28T19:40:00.001+02:00

A dull and very windy day left no other option than to watch waders, the only group of birds that seems to like harsh weather conditions. I checked several locations along the Wadden Coast and saw no suspicious waders nor anything of interest, except maybe for some immense flocks of Sanderlings; 500 birds was most probably undercounted, and almost all birds were in summer plumage. Impressive. Shame they didn't come close enough for pictures. Ezumakeeg brought just a handful of Curlew Sandpipers, two Little Stints and a Red-necked Phalarope.

Dunlin, showing very chestnut upperparts

One of the few Dunlins still mostly in winter plumage

Eiders with ducklings at Westpolder-Wad

Most surprising and best observations of the day, however, were the ones closest to home. My own "Minikeeg", literally around the corner of my house (see older posts), was good for two waders I hadn't seen here before: 2 Avocets were feeding on the mudflat, side by side with a Bar-tailed Godwit! A Temminck's Stint, a Little Ringed Plover, 8 Common Redshanks and a 2CY Great Black-backed Gull completed the party. Great!

Garden-wader-fest!

Some more Semipalmated pictures

2011-05-26T17:35:00.000+02:00

...I still had on my camera, also showing (albeit a bit hard to see, but better than on the first pictures) some chevrons on the flanks.

Sunday, May 22: Yes I can...

2011-05-22T23:57:00.001+02:00

...find rare waders, but recognize them is another story. The odd little stint I wrote about 2 days ago turns out to be a fresh summer plummaged Semipalmated Sandpiper, as far as I know a first for Groningen if accepted. Another lesson learned: do sometimes trust your first thoughts. When I found it, I was immediately alarmed and called Rommert with the message that I had found a Semipalmated Sandpiper. But the more and longer I looked, the more I started to question what I was seeing. And when Rommert arrived and at first wasn't too excited about the bird either (by that time my excitement had also changed in serious doubts), we checked the scarce literature present in Rommert's car and decided to call the bird a "strange" Little Stint; it turns out that this "fresh" plummage wasn't shown and that's what fooled us. Plus, they are tricky indeed, even at close range.

Once again. Comments on the bird are welcome, of course

Let's see what CDNA thinks about the bird, but for now I think I found myself a nice new ToH-tick.

Sunday, May 22: No Lily Whitefaces (yet)

2011-05-22T20:20:00.000+02:00

This weekend I felt like doing Dragonflies once again, but looking back, it would have been better to do on Saturday what I did on Sunday and the other way around. Saturday, I spent almost all day on Delleboersterheide, and saw only one (maybe two) too distant males Eastern White-faced Darters (Oostelijke Witsnuitlibel), along with a lot of nice but to-be-expected other Dragonflies, the best being Irish Damselfly (Maanwaterjuffer). Six Grass Snakes and 1 beautiful Adder were a nice bonus, but not too very unexpected either. Today, Sunday, I joined the excursion in Weerribben in search of Lilypad Whitefaces, the species (small population) found here some ten days ago. But the weather was a real pain in the ass; the strong wind and grey circumstances is NOT what this species likes at all, so our search resulted to be in vain. Hopefully we'll get another chance in the years to come, because the habitat seems very suitable, and not only on the location we were today but all over Weerribben.

Brimstone (Citroenvlinder)

Chrysochraon dispar (Gouden Sprinkhaan)

Great Raft Spider (Grote Oeverspin)

Irish Damselfly (Maanwaterjuffer)

Siberian Winter Damsel (Sympecma paedisca)

Northern White-faced Darter (Leucorrhinia rubicunda)

White Stork (Ooievaar)

Pool Frog? (Poelkikker?)

Grass Snake (Ringslang)

Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary (Zilveren Maan)

Friday, May 20: waders

2011-05-20T22:41:00.001+02:00

During the last week, I spent some evenings checking waders on a "new" and fantastic location at Kustweg (most of all during low tide). Despite the incredible numbers of birds (mostly Dunlins, Ringed Plovers and Bar-tailed Godwits), I didn't find anything to write home about. But I will, you can be sure about that. Or at least pretty sure. Well, maybe.

Is it strange that I found this one a little tricky, semipalmated-ish??

Bright Yellow-legged Temminck's Stint

Saturday, may 14; ToH Birding Day

2011-05-20T22:18:00.002+02:00

Winners Luuk, Kasper, Wouter and Frank: a Swarovski for finding a Common Rosefinch, that's only possible on the Top-of-Holland Vogeldag

Luuk Punt and Sandra van der Luit (Inezia Tours)

Our yearly speach

Second prize winners: The Jungle Boys Lazar and Dusan (Dotterels and Broad-billed Sandpiper)

Well, I'll keep it short, because almost all has already been said or will be said in the coming ToH Newsletter about "our event". I spent the day birding with Bart-Jan, and the best we saw was a Black Kite. We've known better times, like everyone participating today. We once again managed to pick a day with sh#@ weather, and that clearly was reflected in both numbers and quality of species.
I want to thank everyone for participating and for the perseverance (and also http://www.ineziatours.nl/, http://www.verrekijkerwinkel.nl/ and http://www.opticron.nl/ for the prizes), and as I said: check the renewed edition of the ToH Newsletter, somewhere in June, for more and better stories.
Pictures above made by Willem Hartholt (thanks!).

Sunday, May 8: Kites

2011-05-08T19:46:00.001+02:00

A spring day like a spring day's supposed to be, that's what it was like today on our migration post at Kustweg in the Lauwersmeer. The southeastern wind was strong enough to push lots of birds to the dike, mainly Yellow Wagtails, swallows (with for example over 5700 Barn Swallows) and raptors. Black Kite was the species that stole the show: we saw 10 birds today, but Rommert saw a total of 18 throughout the day in and around Lauwersmeer. Other things of interest: a fine male Red-footed Falcon, an Osprey, a Red Kite, a Turtle Dove, a Hooded Crow (rare in may!), 4 Dotterels, 3 Montagu's Harriers, 11 Hawfinches, a Little Egret, 12 Merlins, 27 Little Terns, a Ring Ouzel, 2 Honey Buzzards and 9 Temmincks Stints.

Some of the 10 Black Kites of today

Red-footed Falcon; views were better than this crappy picture suggests

Migrating Little Terns

Hooded Crow

Montagu's Harrier

Little Egret

As I said, lots of Yellow Wagtails today. Most of the groups passed by without the possibility to properly check them, but once you're offered the chance to have closer views, the individual variation in every group makes you hope the CSNA actually decides to lump all taxa.

Female flavissima?

white-throated flava?

Dark thunbergi

Anyway, before spending the afternoon at home, I decided to check my Minikeeg around the corner (see earlier posts), and to my big surprise and delight I found 5 Temminck's Stints and 2 Wood Sandpipers there! What's next!?

5 Temminck's Stints, almost in my backyard!

Saturday, May 7: Weerribben etc.

2011-05-07T20:44:00.000+02:00

Who would have thought that on a spring day, 7 may to be more specific, with clear skies and a moderate southeastern wind, I would spend the day watching dragonflies and butterflies? Well, normally I wouldn't dare do so, but today was an exception. If you ever want to see Coenagrion armatum (Donkere Waterjuffer) in the Netherlands, your only option is to join the Staatsbosbeheer excursion in just this time of year. And because you have to subscribe early in the year (it's a popular little insect), without knowing what the weather will be, chances are that you end up looking down on a perfect day for looking up... Well, looking back it was more than worth it. The weather was perfect, Weerribben is a magnificent piece of our country and all our plans worked out just fine. The target species showed well (taking picture was a defferent story, by the way), and when we (Marnix, Willem-Jan and I) got back to the car, we spent the afternoon on some other locations, for me resulting in two new butterflies species (Pyrgus malvae/Aardbeivlinder and Boloria selene/Zilveren Maan), along with lots of other butter- and dragonflies and a never witnessed eruption of Leucorrhinia pectoralis (Gevlekte Witsnuitlibel). Birdwise there was not much to report, just some expected Golden Orioles, Bullfinches, Hawfinches and Purple Herons.

Excursion in search of Coenagrion armatum/Donkere Waterjuffer on a undisclosed site in Weerribben

Habitat of Coenagrion armatum / Donkere Waterjuffer

Coenagrion armatum / Donkere Waterjuffer; not spectacular, but very rare and vulnerable.

Zilveren Maan / Boloria selene

Pyrgus malvae / Aardbeivlinder

Purple Herons

(Very young/fresh) Leucorrhinia pectoralis / Gevlekte Witsnuitlibel

Callophrys rubi / Groentje

Cordulia aenea / Smaragdlibel

Lasiommata megera / Argusvlinder

Libellula fulva / Bruine Korenbout

Libellula depressa / Platbuik, in my garden this evening

Friday, May 6: Two days of (little) migration

2011-05-06T21:34:00.002+02:00

I'm really exhausted right now after two days of getting up way too early and spending the morning on the dike at Kustweg, so little words and some more pictures of two days with low numbers of migrating song birds but good movement of both waders and raptors. Highlights: 2 Bee-eaters, 8 Montagu's Harriers, 25 Marsh Harriers, 5 Hen Harriers, a possible 2CY male Pallid Harrier (found too late for safe and secure identification), 2 Golden Orioles, 1 Turtle Dove, 4 Merlins, 1 Red Kite, 2 Ospreys, a Rough-legged Buzzard, 2 Black-winged Stilts (in Ezumakeeg) and a Tundra Bean Goose (!).

Male Hen Harrier at Kustweg

Male Montagu's Harrier at Kustweg

Red Kite at Kustweg

Female Sparrowhawk at Kustweg

One of the many Marsh Harriers at Kustweg

Whimbrels at Kustweg

Bar-tailed Godwits, one of the many groups present at low tide on the Waddensea north of the Kustweg

Osprey, that dark dot, migrating towards Schiermonnikoog

White-tailed Eagle at Ezumakeeg

2CY Caspian Gull at Egbert Schuldinkeiland

Gargany at Ezumakeeg

Some British Yellow Wagtails at Bantpolder-Oost

Some thunbergi-Yellow Wagtails at Bantpolder-Oost

Spotted Redshank at Ezumakeeg

Spoonbill at Bantpolder

Wednesday, may 4: Keeg

2011-05-04T17:26:00.000+02:00

Wednesday is my day with Kasper, so normally you can expect nothing but silence on this weblog. However, today I decided that it's high time for his first visit to Ezumakeeg; you can't start early enough, isn't it. Well, Kasper didn't actually agree. Believe it or not, but he didn't seem to like it at all, so after 45 minutes we decided (or better: Kasper did) to return home. The first half an hour was ok, but I didn't go further than Keeg-South, where I saw my first Temminck's Stints and Curlew Sandpipers of the year, as well as promising numbers of other waders and one of the White-tailed Eagles.

Wood Sandpiper

Temminck's Stints

Tuesday, May 3: Garden List

2011-05-03T12:10:00.008+02:00

Talking about things that do not exist is ridiculous. Therefore, I can finally present you (or most of all myself) the Leverkruid 12, Zuidhorn Garden List. I've been living here for almost three years now and haven't been staring out of the window much, but still it's a worthy list that has a potential to grow for there are still a lot of common birds missing.

1. Cormorant
2. Grey Heron
3. White Stork
4. Spoonbill
5. Whooper Swan
6. Mute Swan
7. White-fronted Goose
8. Tundra Bean Goose
9. Greylag Goose
10. Pink-footed Goose
11. Barnacle Goose
12. Canada Goose
12. Shelduck
13. Mallard
14. Shoveler
15. Eurasian Wigeon
16. Common Teal
17. Tufted Duck
18. White-Tailed Eagle

Adult White-tailed eagle over my garden, 30-01-2011

19. Golden Eagle (september 2009)
20. Red Kite
21. Black Kite
22. Hen Harrier
23. Marsh Harrier
24. Common Buzzard
25. Honey Buzzard
26. Sparrowhawk
27. Kestrel
28. Red-footed Falcon
29. Hobby
30. Peregrine
31. Merlin
32. Common Quail
33. Moorhen
34. Common Coot
35. Common Crane
36. Oystercatcher
37. Golden Plover
38. Lapwing
39. Greenshank
40. Common Redshank
41. Black-tailed Godwit
42. Curlew
43. Whimbrel
44. Woodcock
45. Common Snipe
46. Black-headed Gull
47. Common Gull
48. Mediterranean Gull
49. Herring Gull
50. Lesser Black-backed Gull
51. Greater Black-backed Gull
52. Common Tern
53. Wood Pigeon
54. Stock Dove
55. Eurasian Collared Dove
56. Cuckoo (one of the best on this location, maybe!)
57. Long-eared Owl
58. Swift
59. Kingfisher
60. Great Spotted Woodpecker
61. Skylark
62. Sand Martin
63. Barn Swallow
64. House Martin
65. Meadow Pipit
66. Tree Pipit
67. White Wagtail
68. Yellow Wagtail
69. Grey Wagtail
70. Wren
71. Waxwing

Waxwings, 2 birds present for at leat 11 days in and around my garden in January 2011

72. Dunnock
73. Robin
74. Common Redstart
75. Black Redstart
76. Songthrush
77. Redwing
78. Fieldfare
79. Blackbird
80. Blackcap

Lesser Whitethroat singing in my backyard. The species has been breeding here since I came to live here three years ago.

81. Lesser Whitethroat (breeding)
82. Common Whitethroat
83. Reed Warbler
84. Willow Warbler
85. Chiffchaff
86. Goldcrest
87. Great Tit
88. Coal tit
89. Blue Tit
90. Long-tailed Tit (also a good caudatus-candidate once)
91. Short-toed Treecreeper
92. Magpie
93. Jay
94. Jackdaw
95. Rook
96. Black Crow
97. Starling
98. House Sparrow
99. Tree Sparrow
100. Chaffinch
101. Brambling
102. Linnet
103. Mealy Redpoll
104. Goldfinch
105. Greenfinch
106. Siskin
107. Hawfinch
108. Common Crossbill

Right, an impressive number, but as I said: there's still enough room for more. If you don't mind I'm going to my attic now, let's see if number 109 is willing to appear.

Edit: There it is already, group of 4 birds:
109. Ruff

Edit 2: This afternoon, another Black Kite passed my house, but it wasn't as exciting as yesterday. The bird came from a very high altitude and passed at high speed and at a huge distance eastwards. All other raptors seemed to be locals (Buzzards, Sparrowhawks, Kestrels).

Sparrowhawk with prey passing my garden, suggesting they breed somewhere close.

The "minikeeg" I told you about is starting to look better every day. Today there were 2 Little Ringed Plovers and a Common Sandpiper, but I'm sure the area, no matter how small it is, has the potential to attrack some more.

Minikeeg at 300 meters from my house. Looking good, doesn't it?

One of the 2 Little Ringed Plovers and a Common Sandpiper

Monday, the sequel: Spooner

2011-05-02T21:00:00.000+02:00

15 minutes ago, while talking things through on the phone with Peter, my fellow ToH staff member, an adult Spoonbill flew over my garden, another garden tick. It's time to actually compose that list, that until now has been leading a non-existing and only imaginary life, once and for all!

Monday, may 2: Black Kite!

2011-05-02T15:53:00.002+02:00

I'd better stay home for the rest of this spring, because that's where good things happen, today once again. I just got home from a windy and disappointing morning in Lauwersmeer, and when I was about to park my car I saw a Black Kite right above my house! It apparently was in a hurry, because despite the strong wind, it moved rapidly away from me. I grabbed my camera (wrong settings, of course) and managed to take one picture before the bird disappeared behind the roof of my house. When I got to the attic, I did find the bird back but it had already gone miles away, too far away to take proper pics. Anyway, you'll get the idea...

Record shots of the Black Kite over the garden

Another cool raptor on the garden list. Hoping to be able to add, for example, Osprey (that's not too much to ask?), I checked the skies for another hour, and saw a Peregrine and some (most probably) local Buzzards and Sparrowhawks.
By the way, at 300 meters from my house, they've constructed a mudpool the size of a soccer field alongside Hoendiep for God knows what purpose, but it's starting to look like Ezumakeeg in miniature! Today I saw a Little ringed plover, 3 Common terns and 4 Shelducks, yesterday there were 2 Greenshanks, a Common Sandpiper and 2 Wheatears. Who knows, who knows...

Little Ringed Plover at the new mudpool "MiniKeeg"

Have you already registered for the Vogeldag of May 14? Please do, go to http://www.vogeldag.nl/ for all information you'll need, check http://www.lauwersmeer.com/ (Birding Club) or send us a mail: topofholland @ gmail.com.

Sunday, may 1: Hen...

2011-05-01T19:41:00.006+02:00

This morning I spent an hour or so trying to add some species to my garden list. After ten minutes or so, I found a pale and small harrier that made heart beat like a madman. You can read my thoughts, of course, but no matter how many times I checked the black in the wing, and no matter how much fantasy I used, it was and will always be "just" a male Hen Harrier. Beautiful bird nevertheless, and a fine garden "tick", just like the Hobby that flew by half an hour later. Raptors seem to like the route over Zuidhorn, maybe because of the Van Starkenborghkanaal that works as some sort of natural orientation point for birds going east or returning west. Most of the birds do not migrate right over my garden, but indeed and unfortunately seem to follow slightly more northerly route.

Grotere kaart weergeven

Hen Harrier past my garden.

Two new garden birds, but also a new garden Dragonfly; at least I can't remember having seen a Hairy Dragonfly (Glassnijder) before, but I must admit I've not really kept my Dragonfly Garden List up-to-date...

Hairy Dragonfly in my garden

Some sort of hoverfly, maybe Eristalis arbustorum? Comments welcome (Sander??)

Saturday, april 30: Windy Queen's Day and no Pallid

2011-05-01T18:58:00.000+02:00

Circumstances today were not really in favour of the migrating song birds and raptors, and therefor neither for us. It was (far) too windy, and the north eastern direction of this flow was ok but far from ideal. Migration along the Kustweg was therefor a little disappointing, allthough 4 Dotterels, 1 Ring Ouzel, 3 Great Egrets, a Little Egret, 2 Hen Harriers and a Merlin made things bearable. Really enjoyable were the 13 Dotterels present on a farm land near Bantpolder, just south of my friend the Red-breasted Goose that is still there and will probably stay until at least mid-may.

Great Egrets migrating along the Kustweg

Some of the 13 Dotterels near Bantpolder

You know who this is...

Because I did not expect anything surprising to happen, I decided to go home at about 1 o'clock, with the intention to spend the afternoon with Karin and Kasper, but just when I was about to park the car, Rommert called telling he and David had foud a male Pallid Harrier near the location of the Dotterels. This species seems to like Queens Day; it's not the first time this fine raptor turns up on this date... I turned around, got back to Lauwersmeer, made some wrong decisions, combined it with some bad luck and eventually did not see the bird. Shame, shame, shame, but no disaster: I've seen these guys before, found one with Rommert on almost the same location two years ago, but every adult male you miss hurts a little, just because they're so stunningly beautiful. Let's hope may will finally bring some luck as far as birds are concerned, because april just wasn't really my month...

Wednesday, april 27: I know, for you it's just another baby.

2011-04-27T19:26:00.001+02:00

Sorry for bothering you with these pics of Kasper, almost three months old now. By the way, a White Stork flew over my garden, a new one for the steadily growing garden list.

Sunday, april 24: modest reward

2011-04-24T18:46:00.022+02:00

Today we finally got our reward, albeit modest, of the hours we spent on the dike along the Kustweg. If I had been able to get up a little earlier, it would have been even better (I got there at 7 o'clock and had therefor already missed 3 Dotterels, a Montagu's Harrier and two Medgulls), but I was very pleased with my harvest of today. After 7 hours of migration counting, I went home with a very smart Red-rumped Swallow, 3 Gull-billed Terns (flying east in one group), 2 Ospreys (one of them migrating with a fish in its claws), 3 Merlins, 2 Bullfinches (rather rare here), a late Bewick's Swan, some Redpolls, the first thunbergi Yellow Wagtails and a Britisch Yellow Wagtail. During most of all the last two hours of the count, there finalle was some visible (though very high) migration of raptors, with Common Buzzards, Kestrels, Sparrowhawks and Marsh Harriers in good numbers for this (non-raptor) location, but I'm probably the only birder in the country without having a Black Kite on my year list... Finally, 2 Peregrines and a Hen Harrier were worth mentioning.

Red-rumped Swallow, record shot...

One of the Sparrowhawks past Kustweg

Two Mute and one Bewick's Swan

British Yellow Wagtail, shortly present on the dike

A short visit to Bantpolder was good for another British Yellow Wagtail, my first Whinchat of 2011 and the unmissable Red-breasted Goose.

Female British Yellow Wagtail at Bantpolder

Meadow Pipit at Bantpolder

Red-breasted Goose, ready to leave??

Some garden news: the Swifts and House Martins are back above the garden, their songs are a familliar and pleasant summer sound. Also back: the pair of Common Whitethroats, that have successfully raised their young in my garden during the last two years. Finally, when I woke up this morning, a male Common Redstart was singing in front of my house, only my second ever here.

Saturday, april 23: waiting for good things to come...

2011-04-23T20:46:00.001+02:00

Birding can be a rather frustrating thing every now and then. All the circumstances look perfect, and rarities indeed seem to turn up everywhere in the country (today, for example, there were species like Ross's Gull, Pallid Harriers, Lesser Spotted Eagle, Stone Curlew, Red-rumped Swallows, Short-toed Eagles and a Woodchat shrike available...), but we were waiting and searching without really finding nothing truly memorable. Ok, at the Kustweg we did see a Gull-Billed Tern, a Serin (present shortly and calling only once right in front of us), a Montagu's Harrier, 2 Ring Ouzels, a Rough-legged Buzzard and a few Merlins, and Ezumakeeg looked like a Mediterranean salt pan with 7 Black-winged Stilts and hundreds of Ruffs. A distant Rough-legged Buzzard and 2 Peregrines completed my day that once again was not really what I had hoped for (realizing that I'm very spoiled).

Ruff at Ezumakeeg

Black-winged Stilt, one of seven present at Ezumakeeg

Fallow Deer (Damhert) at Kollumerwaard

A short afternoon garden raptor count produced 4 Common Buzzards, 2 Kestrels, 1 Sparrowhawk, 1 Marsh Harrier and the highlight, an adult female Peregrine.

Peregrine, the third one from my garden

Friday, april 22: King size dip

2011-04-22T20:30:00.002+02:00

OK, to cut a long story short: Rommert, Berto, Peter and I spent almost the whole day on the Wadden Sea dike of Ameland in search of the stunning male King Eider reported yesterday, and it turned out to be in vain. Lots of Eiders here, and I wouldn't be surprised at all if the bird re-appears one of these days. There were only a few little consolation prizes: I once again found 2 wrynecks, this time in the bushes at the end of the bicycle path alng the Wadden dike, a Rough-legged Buzzard migrated east in the afternoon, causing major panic in the polders, 2 Mediterranean Gulls were my firsts this year and several Black- and Little Terns (including a group of 17) were on their way towards their breeding grounds.

Migrating Rough-leg

Amongst the numerous Brants were at least 5 Pale-bellied Brants, along with a mysterious group of 5 birds. The identity of the birds in this group is unclear to me. They look a bit like hybrids between Brants and Pale-bellied Brants, especially the juveniles, while the adult showed some caracters of Grey-bellied Brant (I know they are either rare or unexisting). If anyone has something useful to say, please don't hesitate to do so...

Note the strange flanks markings, almost identical on all the juveniles

Note the pale bellies, but i.m.h.o. not really pale enough for pure PBBrants

Adult with looking a bit Grey-Bellied Compare for example with this or this bird

I took the 14.30 boat back, and while I was at the upper deck of the boat feeling very sorry for myself, all of a sudden a very unexpected group of no less than 16 Velvet Scoters flew east, not too far from the boat. Not the ducks I had hoped for, but nice nevertheless.

Velvet Scoters at the Wadden Sea

Wednesday, april 20: unexpected birding

2011-04-20T21:54:00.002+02:00

The original plan for today was that I would be alone with Kasper for the first time, and that Karin would do some preparations for her first working day after the birth of Kasper, next week. But yesterday, she decided that I wouldn't be really necessary to actually go to Leeuwarden (where she works) and that she would stay home. That was good news for me: southeastern flow, blue skies, and all of a sudden some unexpected hours of free time! I decided to go to Kustweg, but after 1 hour we (me and some other birders) were send away by an angry soldier. Kustweg is not accessible from monday to friday, but normally you are tolerated on the dike. However, when the army is actually really shooting, it's very prohibited to be anywhere near Marnewaard, especially with equipment like ours... We knew that, of course, but you can always try... Let's hope the plans about reducing the Dutch army will also concern the Marnewaard (not only for us, but most of all for the birds living in and around the Lauwersmeer area).
Our sending away was no great disappointment, because despite the apparently good circumstances, nothing much was happening on the migration front. Some Redpolls, 2 Ring Ouzels, a Merlin, 2 Marsh Harriers, some Whimbrels and a heavily moulting Red Kite was all we were able to "score".

Ugly Red Kite

The alternative for Kustweg was Bantpolder. Still no migration worth mentioning here, but there were lots of Little Gulls and some Black and Arctic Terns hunting for insects on the Wadden Sea. Sometimes, the birds passed at very short distance. Smart birds they are.

Little Gulls at Bantpolder

Black Terns at Bantpolder

Brants at Bantpolder

On the Wadden Sea dike, a large group of Yellow- and White Wagtails and Meadow Pipits contained at least 3 British Yellow Wagtails (flavissima), and among the omnipresent geese was still a / the Black Brant.

British Yellow Wagtails Motacilla flavissima

It's becomming a routine to check Bantpolder-Oost, and again it was worth the effort. There were large numbers of Wagtais and Pipits, along with at least still one Lapland Bunting, a Ring Ouzel and many Wheatears. Other good birds were a Peregrine, a Merlin and the first Hobby of the year.

Hobby

Lapland Bunting

Ring Ouzel at Bantpolder-Oost

Wheatear

Hoping to (re)find the Pallid Harrier found yesterday by Rommert and Roef, I did, just in case, check the "Sunflower-fields" near Anjum. No Pallid here, but there were still 3 Rough-legged Buzzards present, and they were still showing awesomely well.

Move away, there's a mouse under your car!

At 12.00, I was back home, had lunch and at 13.30, Karin, Kasper and I were in the car heading for...Lauwersmeer! We walked the Orchid-path at the Groningen side of the area, and to my big surprise and delight, during this walk I found two different Wrynecks! The first flew up from the path and showed in the bushes north of Lauwersoog (east-side of the pool), the second one was near the parking of Lauwersoogbos and showed even better. 2 Nightingales were this years' firsts. A nice appetizer for a memorable weekend!?

The "second" wryneck

Record shot of the first bird

Sunday, April 17: Cranes

2011-04-17T20:21:00.001+02:00

Spring does not really seem to get started yet (wait 'til next week!), but my garden list is growing exceptionally fast. Today, another good one could be added: at 11.00, I was staring at a distant white-rumped Buzzerd (that later indeed turned out to be a White-rumped Common Buzzerd and not the hoped-for Rough-legged) when 2 Cranes flew into my binocular view (is that a proper English sentence, by the way??). The birds were rapidly flying away from me in northern direction, unfortunately not allowing me any record shot whatsoever.
1,5 hours later, I was in Lauwersmeer with Karin and... Kasper! Yes, yes, his first visit ever to the area, and I'm sure he'll return a couple of times in the future... We walked the Vogelroute (again), didn't see anything worth mentioning here, but Kasper did seem to like it. He is a very relaxed, laid-back and happy little man anyway.

Sedge Warbler at Kollumerwaard

Happy Kasper

Saturday, April 16: Guiding

2011-04-17T20:03:00.001+02:00

Last Thursday I've given a lecture about birds of the Dutch marshes for a group of "new" birders of IVN Groningen/Haren. The second part of the course consisted in an excursion in Lauwersmeer, so this morning at 7.45 I found myself at the start of the "Vogelroute"-walk in Lauwersmeer in the company of about 20 enthusiastic beginners in the world of birding. The first bird of the day was a very instructive one, a "Gropper"; one of the main difficulties in this habitat traditionally is the difference between Savi's and Grasshopper Warbler, and today turned out to be no exception... The second bird was a surprise and a highlight: a Great Bittern was kind enough to fly right over our heads; an unexpected sighting that caused a lot of excitement. Actually, throughout the walk, almost all birds did their best to cooperate properly by showing well enough for almost everyone. Bluethroats, the earlier mentioned Savi's- and Grasshopper Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Bearded Tits, Water Rail (the only one that did not show, but the sound is recognizable enough), Marsh- and Hen Harriers, the White-tailed Eagles, a Rough-legged Buzzard, Hawfinches, Stonechats, Wheatear, Cuckoo etcetera, it was good fun. Bird of the day was a calling Penduline Tit, present shortly and only heard by the ones of the group walking in front (including me...). At 12.00 the group happily returned to Groningen, my job was done. I decided to stay a few hours longer and check the Friesland side of Lauwersmeer. Ezumakeeg brought my earliest ever Marsh Sandpiper, along with a Little Gull, 8 Spoonbills, 2 Garganies, a lot of Ruffs, a Spotted Redshank and all the usual stuff.

Marsh Sandpiper, honest.

Black-tailed Godwit at Ezumakeeg

Common Redshank at Ezumakeeg

Last stop was Bantpolder, where my friend the Red-breasted Goose was once again prominently present. Better was a hunting Merlin, best were 2 Ring Ouzels in the bushes at the Lauwersmeer water's edge in Bantpolder-Oost. A apparent Wryneck near the Ring Ouzels disappeared before revealing its identity, while on my way back, a Stoat played hide and seek near Jaap Deensgat.

Ring Ouzels at Bantpolder-Oost

Willow Warbler at Bantpolder-Oost

Yellow Wagtail at Bantpolder-Oost

Stoat at Jaap Deensgat

Sunday, April 10: Kite garden tick!

2011-04-10T20:01:00.004+02:00

Despite feeling rather fever-ish and sick, I did stumble to the dike this morning; as you might understand, the scarce moments I have to go birding I definately don't want to miss. But it all turned out to be quite disappointing: there was hardly any noticable migration and almost all the birds that did pass the post returned westwards a few minutes later, leaving us with empty note books. The only nicities were a Great Grey Shrike present right in front of us, two Great Egrets and two Marsh Harriers that did seem to migrate east.

Male Marsh Harrier crossing the Wadden Sea

Bantpolder-Oost was far better; a lot of birds present (mostly Linnets, wagtails and pipits) amongst which a Pied Wagtail (present just shortly), a Red-breasted Goose (once again very vocal and pretending he was quite somebody), 5 Lapland Buntings (flying towards polder Lioessens) and a fly-by of both Peregrine and Rough-legged Buzzard.

Very sturdy Red-breasted Goose (note the distance the Barnacles are keeping!)

Yellow Wagtails in Bantpolder-Oost

When I got back to my car, I felt so miserable that I decided to call it a day. Once home and settled on a chair in the sun in the garden, fell asleep (one should never do that on spring days like these!), woke up, opened my eyes and saw a Common Buzzard in the company of a Red Kite! The birds had already passed the garden and were flying away from me, so the only thing I could do was making a picture that might well be one of the worst record shots ever....but who cares. A beautiful bird but most of all a very welcome garden tick.

No matter how miserable the picture is, you can still see it is one!

Half an hour and three Common Buzzards and a Sparrowhawk later, another fantastic raptor passed the garden: a juvenile Peregrine passed so quickly that I wasn't even able to grab my camera in time.
On some days, even a garden in Zuidhorn is enough to enjoy yourself.

Sunday, April 4: AWD

2011-04-04T19:47:00.000+02:00

Today, Karin, Kasper and I visited some friends living in Vogelenzang, near Haarlem, but also, and that's far more important, near Amsterdamse Waterleidingduinen. And we did it the old-fashioned way; while the women were taking care of the kids, Teun and I went for a long walk in surprisingly good weather through this fascinating and beautiful area. Still near the car park we were entertained by two territorial males Great Spotted Woodpecker. While disputing, they didn't care for us at all, providing us an impressive display at close range as well as some nice photo moments.

As we went on, we saw and heard Marsh Tits, Bullfinches, Grey Wagtail, Goshawk, Barn Swallows and Bluethroats, but the highlight of the day was a very, very tame male Red Fox. Apparently, it's a local hero and a famous animal amongst visitors and photographers in the area, but for me, this was a completely new phenomenon.

Teun and Fox taking a nap

On our way back, I even managed to see a new species. No bird, of course, but a reptile. Teun discoverd a nice Sand Lizzard that was kind enough to not immediately run away like they use to do. As far as I can remember, all the lizzards I ever saw in the Netherlands (and was able to identify) were Common Lizzards.

Saturday, April 2: Kustweg

2011-04-02T21:43:00.003+02:00

For me, today felt like the official start of spring with the first serious and entertaining bird migration count at the Kustweg in Lauwersmeer. At dawn I found myself already on the dike, eager to finally welcome my first swallows of the season, and indeed it didn't last long. And there was much more: 4 Garganies, 1 Great Grey Shrike, 4 Lapland Buntings, 2 Firecrests (shortly landing almost on our feet!), a Peregrine, a Pied Wagtail, 2 Hawfinches, over 100 Mistle Thrushes and no less than 3 Red Kites were the highlights, for the total count check trektellen.nl.

One of the Red Kites crossing the Wadden Sea

In the afternoon, the wind was a serious party pooper, and Rommert and I were not able to find much more than the expected and long-present birds like Red-breasted Goose, Pale-bellied Brant, White-tailed Eagle, Peregrines, Little Gull, Rough-legged Buzzards etcetera.

Great Grey Shrike at Kustweg

When we were about to call it a day, we decided to check Bantpolder-Oost, where a little surprise was waiting for us. It was a group of 8 Lapland Buntings, with amongst them at least 3 summer-plumaged males. The birds were drinking and taking a bath in one of the small pools, and despite the distance were showing really well (allthough my picture might not give that impression). My last and as far as I remember only other summer-plumaged Lapland Bunting was a bird I saw 3,5 seconds at Noordpolderzijl some six years ago (I didn't even managed to find them in Norway on their breeding grounds), so I was very pleased with these birds. A nice ending of this summer-ish spring day.

Record shot of two of eight Lapland Buntings at Bantpolder-Oost

White-tailed Eagle at Ezumakeeg

Sunday, march 27: Sun-day

2011-03-27T19:50:00.002+02:00

Spring is clearly knocking on the door (it was a true sun-day), but today's trip in around Lauwersmeer mostly produced the to-be-expected winter species. Only new year ticks were Bluethroat and Little Ringed Plover, but I still miss stuff like Barn Swallow, Sand Martin and Gargany, to name a few, species I normally see way before the end of march. Nothing to worry about, of course.

Just like last weekend, one of the highlights were the Rough-legged Buzzard. My record of last weekend only lasted 7 days, because today Bart-Jan and I counted at least 12 birds: 7 in the Lauwersmeer-area (all seen from Ezumakeeg) and again 5 on the fields near Anjum. Incredible, and they're still marvellous. And once again, the sky was loaded with other raptors, mainly Common Buzzards but also Sparrowhawks, Goshawks Hen- and Marsh Harriers, Kestrels and the pair of White-tailed Eagles. The Red-breasted Goose and the Black Brant were still near Bantpolder in the company of a Lesser White-fronted x Barnacle Goose hybrid, while the Groningen part only produced some Redpolls and a Peregrine.

One of the Rough-legges of Anjum

Funniest moment of the day, however, took place in Ezumakeeg. While some 50 people were vainly searching for the Sociable Lapwing in Ezumakeeg-south, I re-found and immediately reported the bird through Dutch Bird Alerts in the northern part, amongst thousands of Barnacle Geese. Two minutes later, the road along Ezumakeeg changed into a Formula 1-circuit. Everybody made it safely and in time, as far as I know, and was able to finally enjoy the bird after, in some cases, a 5 hour search/wait.

Ezumakeeg, just after a Dutch Bird Alert

2011-03-27T19:07:00.001+02:00

One of the 2CY Rough-legges near Anjum

Friday, march 25: Sociable friday

2011-03-25T21:02:00.000+01:00

Some birds you just always want to see, wherever and whenever there's an opportunity, just because they're mindblowingly beautiful in a breathtakingly subtile way. Sociable Lapwing is one of them. Yesterday, "out of the blue" like it's supposed to be, an adult was found in my backyard Ezumakeeg. It goes without saying that it would mean a very welcome ToH-tick, but it would also be only my third meeting ever with this enigmatic and endangered species. Yesterdays' attempt failed painfully, but today the bird gave me (and lots of birders with me) a second chance. What a stunners they are.