Caspian Plover & Long-legged Buzzard Combo!

Today I went to the Caspian Plover that has been present for almost two weeks now at Wissenkerke, Zeeland. I went together with Reinoud Vermoolen. We left Wageningen at 8.00 and in the mid-morning we arrived there. At arrival the bird wasn;t active at all, it was sat inactively on a crop field. We decided to check Neeltje Jans for Shags, but we weren't productive. When we came back to look if the Caspian Plover had become more active, and indeed! The bird had flown to another crop field and was foraging actively. At a good distance we could observe the bird very well. I managed one record shot:

Caspian Plover (Charadrius asiaticus), first winter; based on the light brown edging of the coverts

Next stop was the Snow Goose not far from the Caspian Plover. We soon found it together with Greylag Geese, for what's worth it...! 

As always, the Brouwersdam between the islands Schouwen-Duivenland & Goeree-Overflakkee. This is always a great birding place in winter, for waterfowl. 

We saw a Great Northern Diver, some Red-throated Divers, several Horned and Red-necked Grebes, some Common Scoters and 3 Long-tailed Ducks were also really nice. One male was sat on the side of the dam, nice!

Long-tailed Duck (Clangula hyemalis), adult? male

Last but not least a stop was made at the Maasvlakte, where the longstaying (120+ days!!) is still present. We had perfect views as it flew past in front of the car and perched on a pole, not far in the field!

Long-legged Buzzard (Buteo rufinus), first winter

First for NL: Brown Shrike!

The weekend started very relaxed, but it would turn out to be a rather hectic saturday!

We decided to head for the Parrot Crossbills near Nijmegen that have been present there for almost two months. A group of 25 birds is being really cooperative and we decided we wanted to see them, I mean why not!

When we arrived there the birds also just arrived and flew towards us, landing in some pine trees further down the path. It was immedatly and nice oppertunity to record them:
http://waarneming.nl/sound/view/24653

And here some sonograms:

 Sonogram of Parrot Crossbills (Loxia pytyopsittacus), mixed with Common Crossbills (Loxia curvirostra)

The only thing was: there were too many people around for them to go down and drink water from a small pool, so we only had views of them in flight, and in the pine trees.

Still quite happy with this flight shot!

Then in the afternoon things got exciting!

We got an alert that a possible Brown Shrike had been found near Gendringen, in the utmost south-east of the province of Gelderland. It was already late (not much light), but we decided to give it a go! We arrived there at 16.10, with still quite a bit of light. 

The bird was sitting in some small willows and thorn bushes, approximately 200-300m away from us. What bird!!! A first for NL, and that in winter time! 

The group of twitchers that had arrived by 16.30. Aprroximately 100-150 saw this first for NL yesterday before it got dark.

Here are some record shots from Tammo:

Brown Shrike (Lanius cristatus), first winter; note the striking headpattern: upperside head light brown, black eye stripe, white supercilium and whitish cheek. Back is brownish, secondaries form a light panel, brownish and rounded tail. Barring on the underparts make it a 1st-winter.

There was also this Long-eared Owl catching mice at a few metres distance which drew a lot of attention:

Long-eared Owl (Asio otus)