Combo Twitching - Daurian Shrike & Black Guillemot

Together with my dad, Jurgen v/d Meer and Maarten Kaales we decided to have a twitchday on yesterday. Last time we did it was very succesfull with Steppe Grey Shrike and two Olive-backed Pipits, so our expectations were high :)

On Saturday the 19th of October a group of birders discovered a Daurian Shrike near Vinkeveen, in the western part of the Netherlands. The previous years we've had good twitchable individuals (mostly on the isles) but this is still the 12th record orso for the Netherlands. I'd never seen one before so this was our target species number one.

We arrived at Waverhoek around 7.20 and it would still take half an hour to be able to scan de area for the shrike. During the sunrise we walked to the location, observing hundreds of geese and ducks departing from the lakes nearby. Also many Snipes. Arriving at the location we were the only ones present. As the light got better we started scanning. One hour later we still didn't have the shrike, and a group of ca.30 twitchers had gathered. We decided to go to IJmuiden since we could always do the bird on our way back home. As we walked back the same way we came we didn't find the shrike and got in the car. We drove away when I suddenly see a small group of people actively staring through their scopes and photographing something... a quick look from the car reveals the shrike! It had been present along a path where most of the twitchers had walked past during the morning when heading for the ''old location''!We had walked another path (so no blaming us for not finding it earlier haha).

The bird showed wonderfully, shifting between perching in a reedbed, some small bushes and undergrowth. Initially there were some doubts about the ID of the bird (either Red-tailed or Daurian). In the end the conclusion was Daurian Shrike.

Observations on the shrike: small shrike, lightbrown plumage, crown seemed a bit darker, with a more greybrown tinge, faint barring on the underparts, no barring uppertailcoverts, eye-stripe brownish, reddish orange tail. Amongst others light tips on greater coverts and pattern of tertails make it a 1st-winter. In active tail-moult. 3 old feathers with 7 new ones growing.

Daurian Shrike (digiscoped by Tammo)

Daurian Shrike (Lanius isabellinus), 1st winter

Next stop was the Zuidpier near IJmuiden. The last time I visited the place was already two years back. It was pleasant birding there. We soon located the Black Guillemot that has been present  there for a while, great bird and great views! 

Black Guillemot (Cepphus grylle), first winter

Other birds observed: 1st winter Shag, Rock Pipits, Red-throated Divers, Gannets, Pontic Gull, Yellow-legged Gull.

Red-throated Diver (Gavia stellata)

 Gannet (Morus bassanus)

 Purple Sandpiper (Calidris maritima)

It was a fantastic day, great company and wonderfull birds!

Lanceolated Warbler! 4th record for the Netherlands!

I was awake in bed early this morning when I suddenly saw my phone lightening up: a call from Bram! ''I think I just caught a Lanceolated Warbler''!!!! Whaaaat? Seriously? He was serious... As soon as I could I alerted my dad and 45 minutes later we arrived at the Ooijse Graaf near Nijmegen.

The 4th Dutch record, the second ''live'' sighting of this species; earlier records were 2002 (one ringed along the Dutch coast), 1958 (found dead), 1912 (found dead). So an extremely rare catch!

 Lanceolated Warbler (Locustella lanceolata), 1st winter

  Lanceolated Warbler (Locustella lanceolata), 1st winter with Grashopper Warbler (Locustella naevia)

 Open wing photo of the Lanceolated Warbler

Many thanks to Bram!!

Poland, July 15th-17th: First days

We departured from Apeldoorn at 6.30 in the morning on the 15th. Our plan was to drive to Bialowieza in two days. After driving 700km through Germany, passing the German-Polish border at Frankfurt a/d Oder, we arrived at Pozradlo where we had picked our campsite, a dutch campsite called De Kroon.  In Germany we had seen quite a few Red Kites along the highway and also a Black Kite. Along the highway near the Polish border we saw an Osprey nest from the driving car with a bird sitting on the nest. We'd them at exactly the same place three years earlier as well. In the morning of the 16th we woke up with the sound of Cranes, Corn Buntings, Golden Orioles and in the mean time the Fieldfares had replaced the Blackbirds.

We packed our stuff and continued our journey to Bialowieza. After a full day drive with some breaks in between we arrived at Bialowieza around 5 in the afternoon. We camped at the campsite next to the campsite U michala. We liked this campsite more because of the space and it was less busy.

In the evening we had a short trip with our bicycles. We drove to Pogorcelze, north of Bialowieza. On the way there we had several singing Rosefinches, a singing Savi's Warbler and a calling Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. In the city of Pogorcelze we had another Rosefinch and we had fine views of our first Wryneck of the trip.

17th of July

We decided to have a bit of a sleep-in this morning. Because of the light we already woke up at 4.30 but a relaxing day would do no harm. At the campsite, during breakfast, we had Middle-spotted Woodpecker, Icterine Warbler and a welcome surprise was a Wryneck in front of the tent.

Wryneck (Jynx torquilla)

After breakfast we cycled to Teremiski. On the way we had nice views of Rosefinches. In the clearings of Pogorcelze and Teremiski we had a couple of Lesser Spotted Eagles. At Teremiski a Great Grey Shrike was perched on a wire.

Rosefinch (Carpodacus erythrinus)

Lesser Spotted Eagle (Aquila pomarina)

In the afternoon back at the campsite Serins and Siskins were foraging at the campsite, offering some photo oppertunities. In the Bialowieza village we heard and saw our first Collared Flycatcher of the trip. A female type.

Serin (Serinus serinus)

The evening was spent in the eastern part of Bialowieza, in Wysokie Bagno Reserve. At the site where we had Three-toed Woodpeckers before we found them here again! Two Three-toed Woodpeckers were seen foraging in dead trees. In the dead trees we also saw some Pied Flycatchers.

 Three-toed Woodpecker (Picoides tridactylus), the bird dissappeared too quickly before I could take a decent picture. It disseappeared to the back of the tree and we didn't find it again!

 Evening on the eastern side of the Bialowieza village

Pierogis at noon

Búho real

For almost a week, the Siskins were gone from our garden, but as the cold stayed (and we got some snow) the Siskins came back. On Friday several Siskins were visiting our garden again. In the early morning yesterday I opened my net in the hope of catching some more.

Due to the fact that I didn't have my laptop at home the last two weekends I failed to do an update on the Siskins. On the Sunday the 17th of March I caught the amazing number of 37 Siskins in our garden! 34 were new, 3 were retraps from early March. I didn't know I could catch so many in our relatively small garden, with a single 6m net.

So yesterday, Saturday the 30th of March, I tried again. And I was not dissappointed! I ringed 21 new Siskins, and recaptured 2. One recapture wasn't mine...! It was ringed by my trainer Hans, the day before (Fr 29-03) in his garden. His garden is only 900m away from ours, but still, a great recapture!

Catching (can you count all 8 hanging in the net?)

 Ringing

 Weighing

Then after some ringing we made a short visit to the Middle-spotted Woodpeckers near Hoog Soeren again. We had three males, showing well for a short period of time. Afterwards we visited my grandparents in Ruurlo, seeing quite a few Siskins and a Brambling in their backgarden.

And after a nice chat with my grandparents we went to Winterswijk to check out the breeding Eagle Owls in the quarry overthere. We were rewarded with lots of activity!

As soon as it got quiet the mother started feeding the two chicks (approx 8-10 days old). I'd never seen it before so it was great to see. As it got a bit darker, dad started calling in the nearby forest, making the experience complete! Wow!

Look at those eyes! Eagle Owl (Bubo bubo), phonescoped

American Wigeon!

For a couple of weeks now an American Wigeon has been present amongst European Wigeons near Maurik, in Gelderland. I've seen American Wigeon twice in NL, once a bird in Groningen in 2005 and another one in 2008 in Noord-Holland. We've also seen it in North-America. Therefore, we weren't really tempered to twitch this bird, but since it was still present (and since it's a good Gelderland species) we went there to have a look at this bird.

Yesterday it was only present for a short period of time because someone found it was neccesary to cross the fence and approach the Wigeons and flush them, eventhough you can see them at 25m distance from the road...

We were a bit hesitant if it still would be preshnt today but soon we found out! In some sort of by-pass of the river the Rijn the Wigeons were situated. The Wigeons were foraging in this by-pass on very close range. Together with Henri, me and my dad we arrived at the location around 11.45. On my phone I saw it had been seen at 10.40. As we were the only birdwatchers there we started searching for the bird. We found a group of some inactive Wigeons and soon my dad shouted: I think I got it! The bird was sleeping, some 25m away from the car. It was very inactive but every now and then it got its head out.

Several people with dogs passed by, but the Wigeons didn't care, no movement at all. We could even get out of the car and nothing happened. We've rarely had such encounters with waterfowl. Normally the birds fly off immediatly.

Then an hour later orso, the bird became active, and we were able to take some really great shots of the bird! The sun resulted in a bit harsh light for photographing, but you won't hear us complain about the results!

 American Wigeon (Anas americana), adult male

 Eurasian Wigeon (Anas penelope), adult male

Look for the bird!

They were quite close as you can see!

The 'floodgates' situated on the Rijn.

After we had great views on this bird we searched for Black-necked Grebe and Long-tailed Duck that had been seen yesterday, We failed to find them though. A little bit further we a fly-over Waterpipit, a hunting female type Hen Harrier and lots of geese.

We wanted to give the Velvet Scoter near Veenendaal a visit. From Rhenen we drove to Veenendaal. On our way there we stopped near Achterberg where we had two Whooper Swans and 22 Bewick's Swans. Near Veenendaal we soon relocated the Velvet Scoter. It was more distant than the previous time but we had a good look at it. It was succesfully fishing on crayfish. We saw it consuming multiple crayfish over the short period of time we spent there.

What an excellent day to end my one week holiday!

Inland Velvet Scoters

The past week I went to see Velvet Scoters inland at two different locations. First ones were near Zutphen. I spend a few days at my grandparents in Ruurlo and on Tuesday we made a quick visit to these birds. They were present on recreactional lake just south of Zutphen. Good observations through the binoculars, though a bit distant. With my camera I managed to get some record shots.

Velvet Scoters (Melanitta fusca), both 1st winters. 

In Veenendaal, about 10km from Wageningen a first winter male Velvet Scoter has been present for a few weeks now. Yesterday I decided it was time to give it a visit since it was great weather. It is present in a creek just in the urbanised area, swimming in between the Coots and Mallards, a weird experience! There are lots of Red Swamp Crayfish in the creek, so enough reason for the bird to reside at such an odd location for a seabird. 

Velvet Scoter (Melanitta fusca), first winter male

On my way back I came across a group of 48 Bewick's Swans, a nice addition to the list.

Bewick's Swans (Cygnus bewickii). The group existed out of 33 adult and 15 immature birds.

Pretty little things

After some weeks of no ringing I felt like doing some bird ringing again. On Saturday morning I joined Hans, Gerrit and Tammo for some ringing along the IJssel. I arrived a little bit later but I didn't miss anything so far. Blackcaps were around in good numbers with some 40 ringed in the early morning. So were the tits. Groups of Coal tits mixed with Blue and Great Tits came by, of which we were able to catch some. About 30 Coal Tits came by, but only two responded well enough to the tape to end up in the nets. They don't seem to respond that well to the tape then they usually do.. Anyway, another pretty surprise was a sweet Firecrest. It had been a while that I'd handled one (not if you take all the Golden-crowned Kinglets into account that I ringed last year). We ended the morning with a decent total of ~85 birds.

 Firecrest (Regulus ignicapillus), first year male

Coal Tit (Periparus ater), first year birds

Day 3: A bright yellow eye looking at you..

20th of July:


My dad and I departed early this morning and headed to the plains of El Jable, west of Teguise. We had our hopes set on Houbara's, Cream-coloured Coursers, Stone Curlews and so on. We arrive at the southern part (just north of the LZ-30) around 7:15 and start to drive the dirt tracks going through the plains. Soon we see two Stone Curlews taking off in a field next to us. A bit further down the track another one appears close to the car, our first close encounter with a Stone Curlew here... and we didn't know yet what had to come! We stop the car and I do some scanning on my right with my binoculars, resulting in the find of 3 Cream-coloured Coursers. That went rather smoothly! The light is bad but I manage to get a recordshot. We were following a track to the west and have now turned right to the north. We drive on till we come upon some kind of farm, with some dirty ponds filled with goat shit, or something similar, haha. We come across many (100+) Lesser Short-toed Larks and Stone Curlews are no unusual appearance anymore with +4 seen here. They are very very cooperative and come very close, despite the very well-pronounced colour of our car: red.

 One of the Cream-coloured Coursers (Cursor cursorius); poor shot

 Stone Curlew (Burhinus oedicnemus insularum)

 Lesser Short-toed Lark (Calandrella rufescens polatzeki); too bad that this bird just posed wrong for us..

Another Lesser Short-toed Lark

After we've had our photographic moment we continued northwards. Not much later we locate a Houbara Bustard to the right of us. The bird shows really well and we have nice views through our scope. We also locate three more Houbara Bustards north-east of there. The location is as follows: coming from Teguise you take the LZ-30 to Mozaga, on the roundabout you take the LZ-402 to Famara. Just afther the KM 2 sign a dirt track goes off the road to the left. Drive 500m and start the scan. From here we had nice views of at least three birds from a reasonable distance. The light was still very good so there were no heatwaves.

 This is where we saw the three Houbara's.

Tammo watching the bustards.

The clouds that were present in the early morning had moved away, and the sun appeared instead. Near the ''farm'' we see our first Hoopoe, Cattle Egret and we discovered a territorial Southern Grey Shrike.

Southern Grey Shrike (Lanius meridionalis koenigi); the bird shows a three old outer primaries and a few old inner secondaries, all very bleached/worn. I have no experience in ageing them, I'll dig in to that sometime;)

We are back on time in the apartment and have a nice meal at noon. In the afternoon we go to Famara for a hike. 

Risco de Famara

The almost two hour lasting walk brings us along the foot of the cliffs. We see our first Ravens soaring above the cliffs and Tammo gets all the credit for discovering a hunting Egyptian Vulture.

 Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus majorensis); this endemic ssp has a more rufous-tinged colouration making the birds look very ''dirty''.

The family walking down at the foot of the cliffs.

Back at Costa Teguise I see a probable Alpine Swift in the evening. From the driving car is see a large swift flying together with some Plain Swifts, too bad the bird dissappears immediatly.