The plan was to go to IJmuiden first to catch up with some sea birds, Martijn (the non twitching buddy) and Diederik had never gone to IJmuiden before so I had to be their guide.
The first thing we spotted was a Rock pipit foraging along the shore, the second was a pair of Eiders. Especially the female got a lot of attention (we all know the males plumage from a 3 year staying bird on our local patch).
I was more interested in the flying gulls, I spotted one that had paler underwings then the Herring and a whiter head, a Yellow-legged!! The tail excluded Caspian.
A colleague of my dad was nice enough to loan me his Canon camera with a 200mm lense, since birds on the pier are very accustomed to the fishermen they are too to the other people, including 3 fanatic birders with camera's.
After seeing some Turnstones we spotted a Purple sandpiper foraging among more Turnstones, the poor bird got to hear a lot of digital 'clicks'.
Suddenly I spotted a gull that we immidiately identified as a Kittiwake, the bird flew by at close range. Later on we spotted 2 more.
^KittiwakeMartijn and I spotted a diver spec. flying to the north, although I don't have much experience with divers I was most certain that this was a Red-throated Diver.
The bird landed on sea and as we watched it with our telescopes it was clear that it was a Red-throated one.
At the end of the pier is a lighthouse were people (when it is the right time and the wind comes from the best direction) often watch seabirds, there was nothing to see.
2 Turnstones came very close and enjoyed Diederik's Sultana's, we got very nice views when foraging 5 ft away.
^Turnstones4 Snow buntings were foraging near the car park.
^Snow buntingWe decided that we would twitch a little (yes!) and headed for a Pallas' Leaf Warbler near Driehuis.
We didn't spotted the 10 birders watching the bird and drove straight past the spot...
Because it was a dead end we headed back and then I saw a photographer through the buses, this must be it!
The bird was gone for 10 minutes now and people were leaving, I thought I'd seen a better spot so I walked straight to it.
An other birder spotted the bird at the spot were I was heading!
The bird gave some splendid views in the next half an hour, then suddenly Martijn said: It is getting dark, should we go by the Red-flanked bluetail?
I didn´t even needed a lie to get him their, what a relief!
I pointed out the way and as we arrived in the area we didn´t see anny birders, did the bird left or wasn´t annybody interested annymore?
The bird didn't left and there was some interest in it from some locals and photographers but they were all hidden in the bushes.
I found myself a real nice place to photograph next to Martijn de Jonge ( www.martijndejonge.nl ), he assured me that the bird will show up and that I should be capable to get some shots even with the 200mm.
The bird did show up and it showed extremely well at close range, there wasn't a binoculars needed for this bird, I even found it kind of dull to watch it through a telescope...
^Red-flanked Bluetail, sitting on his favorite branch
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