Twitching in Holland

Having twitched the Glaucous-winged Gull last weekend we decided to try for the Siberian Rubythroat as it was still around.

We caught the 6.20 train and the drive north to Hoogwoud. Stopping for a comfort break and some sandwiches. The drive through Noord Holland was memorable for the number of goose flocks, including hundreds of Egyptian Geese and at least 10 Great White Egrets. We arrived around 12.15 local time where the bird hadn't been seen for about an hour. There was a favoured spot which had been staked out with mealworms and a log where we stood and waited. It was a little restricted so I walked round to the other side where the view was better and there were less people.

It was about 2 1/2 hours later a bird flew into the hedge, it was the bird! It was another half an hour before it decided to come out and hop around the log, feeding on the mealworms and pecking about before popping back into the hedge. It showed a few times more and then hopped across into the right hand garden and hopped up into the laurel just as a white cat came along. It looked as if it might be hunting, ignoring the scare sounds from the crowd.

One of the men chucked a lump of wood at it and it soon scooted. This seemed a good time to leave so we collected our bits and went back to the car.

Our next target were some Red-breasted Geese which were a short way north. Having set up the sat nav we were there in under 20 minutes, with a short stop to check through a flock of geese, and a scan through the Brent Geese found them feeding in the middle of flock. A passing helicopter spooked them all into flight and as they resettled there were two Pale-bellied Brents at the edge of the flock. Across the fields were 2 more Great White Egrets, a Heron and at least 3 Hares. We moved on to Den Oever harbour to look for a reported Buffleheads but no luck, although we did see 3 Smew, or with a reported Lesser Scaup, although there were 3 male and 2 female Greater Scaup among and Tufted Duck. A Bittern crouched against the reeds and a Kingfisher was seen by Tony.

The return drive was delayed by very heavy traffic around Amsterdam which meant that we missed our train but it was a really enjoyable day out with great views of one of my target birds.





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Ireland Day 2

Because Ireland is so far west the sun didn't really come up until past 8.00 am. Anxious looks out of the window showed it wasn't raining and we were up and out soon after. We walked along the road to the 2 best viewing spots with no luck but as we walked back Martin spotted it on a lamp post. It showed well on and off all morning, even coming close for bread, although it didn't seem very hungry. We saw two other birders and chatted to a few locals who were curious about what we were looking at. One chap was very informative about how it had looked 40/50 years ago.
The other birder that we met told us about an Iceland gull at Eyeries so we drove over and took a turning for the Strand. A left turn proved a mistake but as we backtracked Martin noticed a white-winged gull on the coast so we took a turning that led us to a small cove where the Iceland gull was loafing on a rock. Not long after it flew off to the west and disappeared. Within the small beach by the road were several Rick Pipits and Turnstones, some Oystercatchers and a sign explaining that Sea-Eagles had been introduced and there was a good possibility of sighting one of these birds.


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Short trip to Castletownbeere

An almost obligatory early morning start as we headed for Stansted through the first snow of the year. As this was just a couple of days we were travelling light with just hold bags, which meant we didn't have to check in our bags giving us plenty of time for a leisurely breakfast and cup of tea. It was odd as it felt as if we had forgotten something.

A 90 minute flight and we landed early in Cork, passed through customs, collected the car, a Nissan Juke, and were off to Castletownbeere. It was raining but did ease off and brighten a bit.

The road took us through some lovely countryside very reminiscent of the rocky, grassy hills of Scotland. A brief stop at Glengarriff to look at a flock of gulls included 2 Glaucous gulls and a common seal popped it's head up.  A short drive around Castletown and we eventually found the Glaucous-winged asleep on a rocky island just off the sea wall but the abysmal weather made it difficult to see. We decided to go for lunch and come back later if the weather eased. We ended up in McCarthy's bar which is a local, traditional irish bar/shop where we had a lovely crab sandwich and some tea.









The weather hadn't improved so we booked into the Murphy@s Bar and B&B before driving along the sea wall but no sign and the tide was dropping. We spent the rest of the afternoon driving around the harbour to no avail. We did see lots of gulls which included a Glaucous Gull, a couple of Med Gulls, Rock Pipits, Ring-billed Gull, Little Egret, Shag and 2 Black Guillemots.

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