A Brit abroad

Dutch birding

The unusually warm weather so far this year has overall made for lacklustre birding around Paris, but further north in Holland has enabled several vagrant passerines to successfully overwinter. Armed with some phenomenally precise online information on where to find these birds, Stephane Maquinay and I hatched a plan to beat the winter blues with a whistle-stop weekend tour of the Netherlands. The trip was extremely successful for both of us - I notched up 4 new species over the 3 days and Stephane got at least 6 - but the spectacular numbers of wintering waterfowl made the trip worthwhile in itself. I don't think I've ever drank so much celebratory beer and wine over the course of a birding weekend before!

After a long drive our first port of call was a small allotment in Katwijk in search of a wintering Little Bunting (Bruant nain). Within ten minutes of arriving, we were watching the bird creeping stealthily through the grass.

Soon after it was joined by a second bird - amazingly, another Little Bunting! This bird was overall much drabber, less boldly marked and grey-toned than the first - an adult and first-winter perhaps?

We had this delightful pair to ourselves for about an hour. In contrast, we arrived at the site of the wintering Red-flanked Bluetail (Robin a flancs roux) to find it crawling with birders, many of whom were beating the bushes rather than waiting for the bird to appear in its usual spot. In these conditions we thought it unlikely that we'd see the poor bird so we headed north to look for a Pallas's Warbler (Pouillot de Pallas). A group of birders was grilling a small cluster of conifers where the bird normally hangs out without success, so I decided to wander off to scan a neighbouring cluster. I've missed many species (notably Wallcreeper) by straying from the crowd, but this time it paid off and I refound the bird. Everyone present had crippling views of the bird feeding alongside an equally pretty Firecrest (Roitelet a triple bandeau). This was a lifer for Stephane, and the occasion was duly marked with a celebratory beer.

Since it was now lunchtime, we reasoned (correctly) that there would be less birders at the bluetail site, and indeed we managed to get a prime viewing spot in its favourite clearing. The clicking of a digital SLR heralded the bird's appearance and suddenly - oh my God! - there it is, 2m away from us, flashing its cobalt-blue tail. Ornigasm! This is one seriously cute bird. Even better, after dancing its way around the appreciative crowd, it settled on a nearby branch allowing us some fantastic scope views.

After spot of lunch and another celebratory beer, we had the dubious pleasure of seeing our first House Crows (Corbeau familier) - an introduced species which has established a small colony at the Hook of Holland.

A number of Oystercatchers (Huitrier pie) were present here. I'm often guilty of not paying enough attention to common birds, and in fact I never realised that adult birds are distinguishable from immatures by the presence of a white neck collar.

We decided to push our luck and drive inland for a wintering Ring-billed Gull (Goeland a bec cercle - oh, the shame! But it was a lifer for Stephane). After brief, unsatisfying flight views, we decided to chum for the bird with a heady mix of chips, mayonnaise and barbecue sauce.

Unfortunately it was late enough in the day that most of the gulls were flying to roost, so I ended up scoffing the rest of the chips. Following more beer and a bottle of dry white wine, we fell asleep listening to the sound of the amassed White-fronted Geese (Oie rieuse) and a loud but mercifully brief blast of techno music (and I thought raves were soooo nineties).

Next day dawned foggy, and we sacrificed our breakfast croissants to chum in the Ring-billed Gull. Since we had seen most of our target birds already, we decided to bird our way north via Oostvaardersplassen. This site was packed with wintering waterfowl, including decent numbers of Smew (Harle piette). I was particularly pleased to catch up with some adult males, as it had been a while.

We also located a smart hybrid Ferruginous Duck/Pochard hybrid.

Other goodies on show included a fair few Whooper Swans (Cygne chanteur), a Merlin (Faucon emerillon), a male Ruff (Combattant) already obtaining his white breeding collar and a pair of Hawfinches (Grosbec casse-noyaux).

We drove the amazing causeway separating the Waddenzee from the Ijsselmeer, the avian highlights of which were my first Eider (Eider a duvet) in a few years, and this enormous raft of Greater Scaup (Fuligule milouinan) - we estimated at least 3000 birds to be present.

Late in the day we searched for an adult Glaucous Gull (Goeland bourgmestre) at Den Helder, and were treated to great views of it bathing and preening before it headed off to roost.

Our last morning in Holland was dedicated to finding Lesser White-fronted Goose (Oie naine). I was initially pessimistic having watched a large flock of White-fronts depart to the north in glorious weather the previous evening, and on top of that the first goose flock we quickly disappeared into thick fog. We decided to drive a few quiet country roads whilst waiting for the fog to lift, and miraculously stumbled across a mixed goose flock close to the road, containing at least 4 Lesser White-fronts! The following shots aren't great, but illustrate most of the field marks separating this species from White-fronts (namely a tiny beak, extensive white forehead and obvious yellow eye-ring on the adult, reduced belly-barring and long wings extending beyond the tail).

With plenty of time to kill we headed southwest of Rotterdam to scan the hordes of Barnacle Geese (Bernache nonnette). This enormous flock contained what at first sight appeared to be one of the 'small' Canada Goose forms, but the white forehead, extensive black on the neck and contrast between the back and flanks revealed its true identity as a Canada/Barnacle hybrid.

In the same flock we also discovered this small, dark-bodied Canada.

Not far away we found another individual much closer to the road. It was equally dark-bodied, and showed evidence of a limited white neck-collar.

Extensive searching for a wintering Red-breasted Goose was to no avail, though we did find a single Pink-footed Goose (Oie a bec court). We decided to end our weekend checking the goose flocks at Strijen. In addition to an (overwintering?) White Stork (Cigogne blanche), we found a group of 4 small Canada Geese - a family party?

At first I was convinced that we had found some 'wild' Canada forms (i.e. vagrants originating from the US), but according to several Dutch birders these birds are all Cackling Geese (form minima, normally wintering in CA) and thus surely of feral origin. In the field it seemed to me that the first two birds were of a different subspecies than the last four, appearing darker-bodied, a shade larger than the accompanying Barnacles with a lankier, longer-necked impression. Perhaps this was all down to differences in posture and viewing conditions - I obviously have much to learn! Given that these birds associated closely with the wild Barnacle flocks (which contained a Canada/Barnacle hybrid), I'd be interested to know if these Cacklers breed locally in Holland, or follow the Barnacles north to their breeding grounds - comments on this would be most appreciated.

Overall, an exceptional weekend of winter birding, greatly enhanced by the friendliness of the Dutch birders we met - I hope to get back to the Netherlands soon!

Posted by rjhall at March 5, 2007 5:22 PM