Southern Holland

Well, you probably thought I was dead, well I actually don't think that because nobody is reading this =)

At first I have tot tell you that I lost my digiscoping adapter somewhere at a (deadly boring) Hooded Merganser somewhere halve way December so no 'pretty' digiscoping pic's from me anymore.

I met Peter ter Heide at a Little Crake twith but never chatted with him since, some dude gave him my email and he immediately asked if I wanted to go to the most Southern tip of Holland and I obviously said yes. Southern Holland (it's called Limburg) shouldn't be called Holland, it's beautifull, rather quiet and has amazing species you won't see anywhere else in the country. The fact that there was a Ring-necked duck too made it a bit more exciting.
We visited that first, it was swimming quite far out onto the water but it actually showed well.

^Female Ring-necked Duck, Eijsden

A Yellow legged Gull drifted by, a Green Woodpecker was calling and a Little Grebe was present. We then drove to the best known site for Eagle Owls. The ENCI-Groeve is a marl-pit where Eagle Owls have their nest, they roost on 1 spot which is good visible from the edges of the pit. It was a Lifer for me (as was the duck btw), I hoped the owl would do something but it sat there twisting its head, I did get 1 glimpse at its nice big orange eyes but I've seen better on the hand of falconers. I'm not whining though..
Next we drove to Gulpen where we dipped a Dipper but did see a (quite tame) Grey Wagtail.
Vaals was up next, goal species would be Eurasean Treecreeper (continental form) and Middle Spotted Woodpecker, we didn't see any of them. We did see 2 Roe deer, 1 Firecrest and 2 Crossbills that had a low an deep call. A Badger was a roadkill. We then visited Sibbe, a well known site for Corn buntings, we eventually found 7 which we flushed, 1 more was present but flew away shortly after. A Goshawk was present too.
The last (real) stronghold of Crested larks in the Netherlands was up next, we saw 7 birds and some of us saw 2 Grey Patridges.

^Crested Lark, Venlo

A report came in from 34 Cranes being present near Horst, after a quick discussion (my option to go for a Ring-billed Gull was denied because it was out of region) we went for them. It was a nice ride through the 'peelen' from North-Brabant. We saw 2000+ Tundra Bean Goose and a Hen Harrier.

^Crane, Horst.
^From right to left: Berto, Thomas, (someone I don't know), Mark and Peter.

What followed is a real story.
We wanted to go to a Cattle Egret but didn't know how, some old dude was going there so we followed him. I noticed that Mark had a Pine Bunting (or hybrid with Yellowhammer) in his garden last winter, we chatted about Pine Buntings and Yellowhammers and later about White-throated and White Crowned sparrows. When we were close to the egret a report came in, Mark was the first to read it and read out loud: Pine Bunting..
We laughed and said: suuuuuure Mark!
Then Thomas and Peter got the same message. A Pine Bunting was present not that far (but far enough) from where we were now (1.5 hour drive and within 1 hour it would be dark). More ironicly it was when we noticed that the spot was very close to the Ring-billed Gull!
We did managed to catch up with the Cattle Egret but it had a bitter taste.

^Cattle Egret, Venray.

We tried to eat our sorrow away at a 'Great-yellow-M', didn't helped much.

Bit sad that I caught pneumonia somewhere on the way and am still sick of it now..

Best Birding Weekend!

There had been strong North(North)Western winds the past days and there were a lot sightings of Pomarine Skuas. Fortunately my school ended early and after I got my gear I was off to Muiden.
I think I have to explain some things for the foreign readers. My county lies inland but has an open connection to the (wadden)sea, therefor seabirds can fly into the long stretch of water but they have a lot of methods to migrate elsewhere but my county.
The black circle is Muiden, the red area is my county, the black dots are (what I believe) the best seawatching post in the Netherlands. The upper purple arrows mark the normal migration pattern, the lower purple arrows mark the migration with strong Northern winds. When there are hard winds from the N(N)W some birds tend to migrate inland (black arrows), but when those winds are not fierce enough and dure to long they migrate the way of the pink arrows. But when the winds are good and the time is right, the birders from my county all hope for the birds to migrate along the green arrows, that's the way we can see them within the borders of our county and at quite a good range (compared to some seawatching spots).

(This figure and text is how I see it, it doesn't necessarely means that it IS this way)

9-11:
As I was cycling through Muiderberg (few km east of Muiden) I got a text message from Jeroen who was already on the location and had seen various Pomarine skua's. When I got to the place Jeroen had to go because he had to work but told me that Ruud (who was on the Dashorstdijk just a few km. north of Muiden, saw 2 Pomarines flying south) Jeroen told me that whenever Ruud said that, he'd see them. I settled and waited and half hour, nothing showed but a few distant Little gulls, Frans v. Lier joined me and after 15 min. talk I noticed 2 skua's making their way towards us. I've never seen Pomarine Skuas untill that point but it was clear that these 2 were Pomarines, an adult and a juvenile. I followed them with my scope and had great views of them, they came closer and closer and I got my camera just in case, the juvenile flew right over my head while the adult bird passed within 30m!! STUNNING!!
I quickly regained the ability to think clear and started to look for more. Frans had to go and shortly after he left the wind became stronger. I put on another sweater pulled my hat over my ears. Then, my heart stopped.. I noticed a small black bird flapping it's wings while holding it's paws stretched, it was as close as 50 m. away but I couldn't identify it straight away because I never seen anything like it. I pulled myself together and made myself realise that I was looking towards my first Leach's Petrel! I could check every feature while it made it's way, very slowly, to west. Harry joined me and I noticed another Leachs Petrel but further away than the first.
We saw 11 more Pomarine skuas, 1 Arctic skua and 2 Grey Plovers.

10-11:
Martijn and I were the first in Muiden (even after we checked some other cr*p).
We didn't see a thing and started to think if we wouldn't go and see something else, Peter joined us and immediately saw 2 Pomarine skuas flying west. After a few RB mergansers and Dunlins I noticed a smal black-and-white bird near the end of the pier, it was mobbed by a Great Black Backed gull, in my mind I knew it but I didn't dare to shout it. About 30 seconds later Peter shouted: Little Auk, flying West near the end of the Pier! Martijn and I got on it straight away and saw it beautifully and it even landed (with the same GBBG mobbing it!). We called, shake hands, cheered, it was the first Little Auk for my county since 1959!! Hans and his female gang came,followed by Diederik. Diederik noticed the second Little Auk which showed even better than the first. Not gonna bore you with the rest but we did see: 1 Velvet Scoter, 3 Common Scoters, 5 Black-Legged-Kittiwake, 6 Pomarine skuas, 2 Long-tailed ducks and 1 Black-throated Loon (unfortunate beyond the boundaries of my county..).

11-11:
I decided to be social this morning and have breakfast with my dad. Bit of a mistake when I came in Muiden, turned out that I missed the best county bird so far: Northern Fulmar..
Pitty, but I didn't weeped for long and started to look for some proper birds. There were lots of people around, and it was really nice and we had good laughs.

Can't even remember what we saw first, but I bet it was a Little Auk, stunning little creatures and I even found one that was present for quite a while, I saw 5 of the 6 in total. 1 Common scoter was present for a while, a fem/imm Long-tailed Duck made it's way back north, 3 Kittiwakes drifted west and a few Pomarine skuas did so too, 1 Red-throated Diver plunged quite near but we couldn't find it afterwards. Hans got a call from Ruud who was on the same spot in the norht as he was before, a first CY Glaucous Gull was flying toward our county. A possible first county species for all of us, it wasn't 'till long when Hans shouted: I got it! Within seconds we had all good views on it, stunning bird.

A male Peregrine flew west as did 1 imm. Hen Harrier. Ronald noticed a small bird (wader) flying just behind the piers, I couldn't find it at first but when it flew into my telescope view the other people had already id'd it as a Grey Phalarope, a absolutely magnificent county bird, it even landed long after everybody looked at it. Harry had a good time afterwards, he saw a Arctic skua (easiest skua in my county) which made that he saw every skua in our county! I think Ruud has them all too, I'm glad I do too =D

^Adult Pomarine skua, first picture of this species in my county? Probably, but stunning even if it was the 188th.

18!!

Turned 18 today and send my share of the CO2 gasses into orbid right away.
Driving was a fun experience, a bit scary too though. But no real twitcher can go without a license so I have to do it ;-)

Finally!

Finally, a picture of the stunning good looking lad adding this page!!
The Greek God standing next to me is my good friend Diederik who apears to find it realy funny to dip all kinds of rare species, but I don't think he gives a sh*t.
Oh, the thing I do with my fingers, don't blame me, Menzie taught me..

Something else: Lauwersmeer

I didn't posted something for like a million years, so, here goes.

The Lauwersmeer is something mystical for every (Dutch) birder, we all know the stories when you were younger, rare birds everywhere and common birds in high numbers.
At least I had those feelings with the Lauwersmeer, and today was the day I went there for the first time, realy special!
We departed a bit late but it wasn't a real problem. The Ezumakeeg is realy cool, although it was a bit empty we did managed to see some birds like: Common Greenshank, Wood sandpiper, Curlew, Ruff, Snipe, Spoonbill, Common sandpiper, Golden plover and a few Avocets.
This Spotted redshank and Marsh harrier were also present.

^Spotted redshank
^Marsh harrier

A group of terns flew by of which i identified at least one as a certain Arctic! While we were driving and checking for any Kingfishers, Jan and I noticed a stork that was easily identified as a Black stork! The bird almost flew against the car, we chased it and from the car I could take this picture, I'm realy happy with it!

^Black stork

The promised Glossy ibis wasn't present in the Bandpolder so we went to the Jaap Deensgat, Jan noted 2 storks wich turned out to be juvenile Blackie's! They were a bit distant though. From the hide we had great views on Caspian tern, Peregrine, Spoonbill, Spotted redshank (250!!) and a few Black terns. 6 Ruddy shelducks were resting.

^Caspian tern

Behind the hide there grew some of these great flowers: Grass-of-Parnassus.
When I was checking a few Yellow wagtails a Green sandpiper flew by. When I turned around there was (again) a Black stork in the air, this time an adult, it landed on a huge distance.

^Parnassus

We went to the harbour to have a quick lunch, there were Wheatears and wagtails on the dike and Little, Sandwich and Black terns feeding, I never seen Little so close.
We then checked Paesens which is a good place for waders, when you are in the right period which we were obviously not! Though I managed to see some birds: Grey plover, Bar-tailed Godwit, Avocet, Curlew and 1 Dunlin.

Around 8:00 we started driving south again. Lot of Black kites and few Red brothers were along the road, 1 Turtle dove perched on a whire and a brief view of a Cirl bunting wasn't satisfying for me. My dad wanted to see the bridge near Millau so we drove there, came across another old bridge referred as the 'Eifel towers bigger brother', 2 Crag martins flew by and 1 Black kite was heading east.


^Black kite

The bridge near Millau is quite impressive, there were lots of people around but I did manage to see some nice birds here. 1 Clouded Yellow was present and also lots of grasshoppers. When I started to check the hills I noticed a sound nearby that was a bit familiar, a Cirl bunting! I got a few crappy shots of it before it flew of. A Short-toed Eagle made it's way across the sky and after a quick search I found a few hanggliders and 6 Griffon Vultures among them! Very cool birds and although they were a bit distant I got great views of them.

^Cirl bunting, male

^Griffon vulture, note the broad wings and short tail..

We drove through the Cevennes that gave me a great opportunity to have good (car) looks of Short-toed Eagles, 3 Montagu's harriers were alongside the car near Millau. Craq martins flew by and the first Bee-eaters and Rollers started to appear. We couldn't find a good place for the night. Near Paulhan I saw lot's of Bee-eaters and 1 Hoopoe, few Serins and 2 Rollers, the most amazing bird was a Blue rock thrush that flew along with the car for a few seconds and gave great views. We finally found a place to sleep near Beziers, 2 Green woodpeckers flew by (very high, migration?), Serins and Crested larks were calling.

And we're off, on the 19th of July my dad, mum and I went for a 2 week trip to Spain and France. We decided we would sleep twice in a motel before heading for our house in Spain (where my uncle had stayed the week before). The first stop was near Le Rabot at Motel des Bruyeres, it had a swimming pool, huge 3 person cabins and an amazing forest behind it.
First picture to be taken was from the car of this female Blackbird that perched next to a stop sign.


^Blackbird, female

Near our cabin few Serins were singing together with some Greenfinches and Golfinches. In a small pond there were a lot of Small red Damselflies, Blue tailed Damselfly and a Coypu. In the forest a lot of Green woodpeckers were calling, as were some Bullfinches, Barn- and House martins flew by. This female Sooty copper showed well, as did some Brown Emerald Damselflies.

^Sooty Copper
^Brown Emerald Damselfly
^Coypu