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, EijsdenA 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..
