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!

Oh, inland Arctic Skua? Where? Veenoordkolk of course!

Piet Schermerhorn strikes again! Around 14:00 yesterday I saw an alert on my phone from waarneming.nl : ''Kleine Jager, Veenoordkolk''. Whaat?? Arctic Skua in my county? And of course, the Veenoordkolk was again the place to be! Piet Schermerhorn had found this bird and he even managed to take photos. The photos showed a beautiful pale morph adult Arctic Skua. It didn't take long for me and my dad to get in the car straight to the Skua. First we had to do a quick delivery of groceries at my grandparents but afterwards we were ready to go!

In the mean time - while we were driving near Wilp already - Peter Lindeboom gave me a call saying that he had just seen the Skua at the exact same place around 15:15. My dad and I arrived there a little bit later. No sign of the Skua yet but the search had just begun. We walked northwards along the dike and I scanned the water and the land surrounding the 'kolken' to see if I could find it sat on the ground. I did not find the Skua but I did see an adult summer Yellow-legged Gull, a nice species in my county; Veenoordkolk/Teugse Kolk is probably also the best place to see those. 

Then all of a sudden I saw the Arctic Skua coming from the north, hunting low above the Teugse Kolk. My dad was searching somewhere else but also saw it straight away. It landed in the water of the Teugse Kolk, showing really well through the telescope. Another birder, Huub ter Haar, who had just arrived, observed the bird together with us. Then it decided to take off and do some gull-chasing, because that's what they're good at! What an amazing sight to see a skua actively hunting, and that inland! It became quite mobile and started crossing the IJssel and a bit later it started circling higher and higher and seem to dissappear to the north. Just before that I called Arno ten Hoeve - who lives practically next to the Veenoord/Teugse Kolk if he had already heard the news. At that moment he was standing on a bridge north of us and saw the Arctic Skua above him. His first thought he was seeing a Peregrine, as I was pointing directions, but that was because I hadn't told him yet the Arctic Skua was a pale morph, haha!

We thought we had lost it out of sight after that, that it was gone for good, but then suddenly we saw the Arctic Skua land on the Veenoordkolk behind us! So it was back! At that moment we were the only birdwatchers but later that afternoon/evening many more birders came to twitch this great bird.

It is something like the 4th record for the county, but those were far back in the 90s. So I'm really happy with this bird! It was just in the province of Overijssel, otherwise I could've added it to my Gelderland list on which I already have Pomarine Skua and Long-tailed Skua:)

Now something else of interest: the age! 

Arctic Skua (Stercorarius parasiticus) ©Tammo Meijer

As you can see from the photos of Tammo (thanks for those great pics dad!), the bird has retained some pale-barred (greater and median) underwing coverts. This makes this bird a third-summer (4th calender-year) Arctic Skua. (As stated in Skuas & Jaegers by Klaus Malling Olsen & Hans Larsson). 

©Tammo Meijer

And here's my share (of less quality haha):

Third-summer Arctic Skua (Stercorarius parasiticus)

Rematch with the Woodchat

The search for the Woodchat Shrike continued this morning. As I said in my previous post, the bird probably went to rest in the poplar bush early and didn't show up anymore. This morning my dad and I drove there and arrived around 8:30. We started looking at the poplar bush but without any result. Together with another birder, Pieter vd Berg, we were the only ones present. Then we split up and I walked towards the Bolwerkseplas and my dad walked to the bushes along the road. It didn't take long before I received a call from my dad: I got the Woodchat! Arno ten Hoeve had also just arrived and had seen it together with my dad, but I still hadn't seen it. I walked towards the road and alerted another birdwatcher, Erik Lam, who had just arrived, that the Shrike had just been seen. In the mean time, the bird had dissappeared again. Together we did some searching and it was relocated quickly. We had great views from the bird from up close through the telescope.

I had left my camera in the car so unlike my dad and Arno I didn't take any good photos from closeby. I only managed to get a reasonable shot from a distance. After some time the Woodchat Shrike decided to move on to the edge of the Bolwerkseplas where it was hunting and perched continuously in a row of willows and small bushes. With a small group of twitchers we enjoyed this great observation. This place is only a few hundred metres away from where we found the Bairds three weeks ago. This part of the IJssel has been proved golden again!

 My distance shot of the Woodchat Shrike (Lanius senator)

And two great images from my dad:

Woodchat Shrike (Lanius senator) by Tammo Meijer.

The small group of twitchers with the church tower of Deventer on the background.

Hit and Run!

While watching tropical birds in Burger's Zoo (and having a flyover Grey Wag)  an alert came up on my phone: Woodchat Shrike, Deventer. Wow! A very good bird for our county! It was first seen at 14:00 but not relocated after the first observation. Then as we got home from Burger's Zoo I checked waarneming.nl again around 17:30 to find out the Woodchat Shrike had been seen again! My dad wasn't able to go so I made a quick decision: I took the folding bike and took the train to Deventer from 18:08. I arrived at the Bolwerksweiden, Deventer at 18:35. There were only two other birdwatchers present and they had also just arrived. Together we decided to check the rear of the large poplar bush to see if the bird would be perched there. We had a look just around the corner and there it was: the Woodchat Shrike was sitting 5 metres away from us on a branch! Awesome! I looked at the bird with my binoculars and after that I grabbed my camera. I took one photo and then the bird took off from the brench and landed a bit higher in the same small tree, argh! It wasn't shy at all and we saw the bird foraging the next minute; it was catching some insects and landed on the ground once. Then it dissapeared into the large poplar bush with small bushes around it and it was never to be seen again! My guess is that the bird is still present in the bushes, we didn't see it fly away. The bird looked pretty tired and cold (as it is only like 10 degrees) so I hope it still will be present tomorrow to take better pic's! Nice were also 2 Patridges foraging in a cropfield. 

For what's worth it: my 'one split second too late photo':

Amazing shot of the Woodchat Shrike (Lanius senator).

Twitchers waiting for the Shrike that didn't feel like showing up anymore!

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!