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