Ducks, ducks, ducks

At the Yperenplas near Wilp some rare ducks for our county have been found a few days ago by Maarten Kaales (totalbirding.blogspot.com). On the big lake there he found a male Ferruginous Duck, a hybrid Ferruginous Duck X Pochard and a female Scaup. A pretty nice assembly in one group of ducks. They were discoveresd on Wednesday afternoon. On Thursday I went there with Bram and Tammo. It didn't take long for us to find all three species there. According to Arno ten Hoeve there were even two hybrids present. So perhaps it's a hybrid family: father Ferruginous, mother Pochard and their two kids have visited our county :)

The light was horrible, but despite that I managed to get some recordshots of the ducks.

 Ferrigunous Duck (Aythya nyroca), male

Hybrid Ferrigunous Duck X Pochard (Aythya nyroca X ferina), male

Scaup (Aythya marila), female

Here are some landscape pics:

 Thousands of geese, mainly White-Fronted and Barnacle Geese have been present along the IJssel.

A view on the IJssel with Deventer as its background, flooded land as a result of high water levels (which is common in winter).

Yesterday morning I had two Redpolls spec. foraging together with a Siskin in an alder behind my garden. Everyday several groups of Siskins fly by, maybe some movement!

IJssel: always has a surprise!

The morning was rainy but the afternoon was much better. A reasonable temperature and dry skies, good weather for birding! My dad and I did a little tour along the IJssel. We started off at the Rammelwaard, hearing my first Common Whitethroats and Lesser Whitethroats and Yellow Wagtails of the year (in NL ofcourse :)) For the rest not much of interest.

Adding some colour to this dreary day.

We continued to the Yperenbergplas, where we soon found a Little Owl perched on a small pole in the meadow. Too bad it flew off pretty soon. On the Yperenbergplas itself there was a group of 29 Common Terns hunting. Here we saw our first Swifts, a group of 7 birds, hunting above the lake. In the mean time a male Ruff flew by and landed in the meadows, next to the displaying Black-tailed Godwits and Redshanks.

 Little Owl (Athene noctua). Perched.

 Flying.

Well hidden.

From here we drove further north. After a quick scan with my binoculars over the Veenoordkolk and Teugse Kolk I saw nothing special, but I decided to grab the telescope. After a short scan I discovered a county tick for us: a beautiful pair of Mediterranean Gulls was standing along the shore! We quickly got in the car and crossed the IJssel to see the pair from up close. We succeeded!

The pair of Mediterranean Gulls (Ichthyaetus melanocephalus), both 3cy birds. One bird (male probably) was calling instantly, what a great call!

Too bad to hear that an hour after we left, Maarten Kaales found 2 Sanderling at the exact same spot where we saw the Med Gulls.. That would have been another county tick! Well, tomorrow is another day!