19 Feb 25 - Shagging Dutch-style

On the Dutch Spectacled Eider twitch with Pete Moore, we quickly established that the Spectacled Eider hadn't been located early on our second morning. So, we decided to depart on the 10:00 ferry from Texel and head to a channel near the village of Anna Paulowna to look for a flock of Smew. After watching the male Smew displaying to the females, we needed to push onto our main target for the day at the Nature Park on the edge of Lelystad. Amsterdam has had a bad reputation for many years due to its red-light area, but we had a more interesting shag planned: with a nationally rare Pygmy Shag, or to be more accurate, a Pygmy Cormorant.

Bison carving

The Lelystad Nature Park has been tastefully designed to make it a popular visitor attraction with lots of lakes, as well as, things to keep younger visitors entertained.

Jay: This is the glandarius subspecies which occurs in North & central Europe

First we popped into the visitors centre to pay for the parking and for a call of nature. The Lelystad visitor centre had some unexpected stuffed Mammals.

Moose and Red Deer: Moose were extirpated from Holland about a millennium ago, while Red Deer still occur in a few National Parks

European Bison: Another species that hasn't occurred in Holland for many centuries

Thanks to Paul Rhodes for the following feedback on European Bison, which have been introduced into Zuid Kennemerland National Park, near Haarlem, to assist in vegetation control. They have come from the Polish Bialowieza Forest.

The gents toilets: I never expected I would be photographing gents toilets for the Blog. Not only were these three cubicles well decorated, but they were playing bird song inside the toilets as well

Presumably, this is a White Stork nest platform: Thanks to Paul Rhodes for the confirmation that it is

A large bat box

There was no news on the Pygmy Cormorant when we arrived, so we started to look around the lakes. This Scarlet Elfcap was the highlight: one of the few species of Fungi that I know.

Scarlet Elfcap: The Sycamore seed pod gives an idea how small this distinctive species of Fungi is

We had just reached the far side of the lakes, when Pete said, that there was some news that the Pygmy Cormorant had just seen. Unfortunately, we were heading in the wrong direction and it was quicker to backtrack to the car park and take the other path to the other side of the lakes. Eventually, we reached the right area, only to find it was perched at the far end of the lake. We started to watch it through the scopes & to grab some distant photos.

Pygmy Cormorant: there are only a handful of Dutch records of this species which occurs on inland lakes & rivers from South East Europe to central Asia

Tufted Duck: Males. Given the distance of the Pygmy Cormorant, these individuals were more distracting

While I was photographing the Tufted Ducks, Pete said that the Pygmy Cormorant had just taken off, before we could try walking closer. It did a distant pass, before disappearing from view.

Pygmy Cormorant

Pygmy Cormorant: With the Pygmy Cormorant disappearing, it was time to head to the railway station

We ran into a couple of Whooper Swans, as we were walking back to the car park. They looked suspiciously tame. Eventually, one walked onto the grass, where it was possible to see a ring on its leg and there was clearly a lot of damage to one of its wings when it briefly flapped them. Perhaps it was a wild individual, that had damaged its wing and has been forced to stick around at Lelystad.

Whooper Swan

Whooper Swan: The same individual, which had a damaged wing

The next part of the plan was for me to drop Pete at the railway station in Lelystad, so he could get a train into Amsterdam and met up with his wife, Claire and younger son, Rowan, who had arrived that lunchtime for a half term mini-break. My plan was for some Birding, a visit to some World War two battlefields and to visit Luxembourg: my seventy-nineth country. More about that in the next Blog Posts.

28 Sep 14 - Southern Hawker Egg Laying

I spent several hours out Birding locally on Old Harry & Studland today with a selection of commoner typical migrant Bird species seen, but nothing unexpected. Jays were on the move with a flock of 7 North over Studland. An additional 12 heading West from Old Harry, having realised that they were on the end of a headland with water on the Northerly direction that they wanted to go. The Westerly direction would have got them back onto a land route North.

Jay: Part of the flock of 12 which rose out of the front wood by Old Harry

I am always happy to see Long-tailed Tits & I spent some time grilling a couple of mixed Tit & Warbler flocks: but only Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps tagging along today. But the Long-tailed Tits are always great to watch.

Long-tailed Tit: The only European species in my top 10 Birds of the world that I've seen

Long-tailed Tit: It finally got bored with my pishing & after a final look, it decided to move on

There were also a few Butterflies on the wing with Clouded Yellows, Red Admirals, Speckled Woods, Large Whites & a singles of Small Copper & Peacock (the first I've seen for several weeks). The car was showing 23 degrees when I got back to it, so no surprise the Butterflies were enjoying the weather.

Clouded Yellow: The commonest Butterfly seen today with at least 14 individuals. This one appeared to be trying the "If I can't really see you, then you can't see me approach", which didn't really work

The wildlife highlight of the day was this cracking female Southern Hawker which greeted me on my return home. She was egg laying around the main pond. But unlike the other species of Dragonflies & Damselflies, which I've seen lay eggs in water, she was laying eggs in the moss, a few inches above the waterline on the rocks that edge the pond. This is something I've seen before on a few occasions in the last 2 years. From what I've read this evening, it seems that the eggs will not hatch until the following Spring, so perhaps this is a safer strategy for this species than laying the eggs in the pond over the winter. At one point, she even landed on my arm, but wisely decided that a green Rohan fleece was not the right place to lay an egg!

Southern Hawker: Female. This egg was a good 6 inches above water line, with some even higher

Southern Hawker: Female

Southern Hawker: Female. The final 2 segments have bands on them which separates this species from all the other Hawkers

13 April 14 - Watching Me, Watching You

We spent the rest of the day around the Kfar Ruppin kibbutz. There are extensive fish ponds that you are allowed to drive around & which really needs a car: given the size of the kibbutz & the numbers of fish ponds. Also having a car helps as a mobile hide allowing a closer approach to many of the birds. There are also plenty of fields to check out as well. There is a great bird hide overlooking a reasonable sized pond, with bushes & uncultivated areas behind it. The numbers of birds present on the kibbutz is just incredible and more like numbers on a bird reserve, rather than a farm. There can't be many farms in the UK that have those numbers of birds on their land. It's well worth a couple of days staying here with some much good birding on the doorstep.

This was an old watch tower: But it looks like another design on the theme of bird hides

The kibbutz was still a working farm & well as a significant fish farm

Olives were also an important product

Pygmy Cormorant

Black Stork: Dull billed sub adults flying over one of the fish ponds

White Stork: Both White Storks & Black Storks were commonly found on the kibbutz

Night Heron: Immature & adult of the nominate nycticorax subspecies of the Old World. The remaining 3 subspecies all occur in the New World. There was a roost of around 40 birds in the Palms by the bird hide

Osprey: No surprise seeing Ospreys here with all the fish ponds

Chukar: Late afternoon saw us looking for Black Francolin in the fields alongside the road to the kibbutz. We saw this bird as we were driving back a farm track, but were disappointed on stopping to find it was just a Chukar

Black Francolin: After some further searching we found this male. This is the nominate francolinus subspecies which occurs in Cyprus, Turkey, Asia Minor, Israel to Iran & Iraq. I had forgotten how stunning they are since the last ones I saw in India in 1991

Turtle Dove

Smyrna Kingfisher: This is the nominate smyrnensis subspecies, (also known as White-breasted Kingfisher), which occurs from North Israel to the Arabian Peninsula across to NW India

Pied Kingfisher: The nominate rudis subspecies of Africa through Israel to Turkey

 Pied Kingfisher: Who could ever get bored of this feeding action

Collared Flycatcher: This female was around the flat in the kibbutz, but was always shy & elusive 

Collared Flycatcher: Female. A better view of the wing panel

Great Tit: This is the terraesanctae subspecies which occurs in NW Syria, Lebanon, Israel & Jordon

Jay: This is the atricapillus subspecies which occurs in South Syria, Lebanon, Israel & West Jordon

Dead Sea Sparrow: Male

Ortolan: There were several birds around the pond in front of the bird hide

Egyptian Locust

Egyptian Locust: What a fantastic pair of eyes

Simon photographing the Dead Sea Sparrows

After another great days birding we headed into Beit She'an to find some of the restaurants were open this time. Getting back to the kibbutz, the Scops Owls were calling again, so I had another look for them. Initially, I saw a couple of birds in a similar area to the first night. Then after some more looking, I found a very obliging bird which was calling from a low tree & only 4 metres off the ground. He seemed quite happy for me to take some photos & in the end I left him there still calling away. With such a density of Scops Owls on the kibbutz, then it's a great place to see them.

Scops Owl: They do like calling from the Palm trees

Scops Owl: Initially, I only had chance for a quick couple of shots of this bird, before he flew. But then he came back & settled down to calling from what looks to be a favourite perch

Scops Owl

Scops Owl: The bird of the trip for me as this bird was so showy

Scops Owl: Watching Me, Watching You, the latest product from 'Head & Shoulders'