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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