8th October 2011 - another black-and-white record!

For the third time this autumn I step in my car to head to Westkapelle, the number one hotspot to observe migration of seabirds in the Netherlands. Arie Kolders joins me within 10 minutes for the ride. The wind seems to be a bit less than yesterday when we arrive at the dike at 7:30 am: NW5-6. We install ourselves on the platform in the corner behind Paviljoen Westkaap. The first hours we have a good time, especially skua's and brents are flying well. We have contact by a walkie-talkie with the guys in 't Kiekuus, which is located 500 meters north of us.

Third Sabine of this morning!

One of the first talks is about a very near Long-tailed Skua. We pick it up just in front of our spot. Some Leach's and three Sabines are also reported and picked up this morning.  Some shouts like 'Vorkstaartmeeuw vuurtoren' and 'Vaaltje vlakbij de dijk, derde prullenbak' alarms the whole crew of thirty birders around us. The Sabines are all in juvenile plumage and passing very nearby, so I  run almost into the sea to get some pics.

I also was on the dike one month ago, on september 8th. The day we set a new Dutch record of Manx' Shearwaters (240). One month later, it seems that another black-and-white species will tick a new record: BRENTS! During the whole day, we see groups around 150 up to 600 flying south fast! At the end of the day, 16.000 have passed the dike: wow! Another black-and-white record.

Brents! Over 16.000 this day.

Other nice birds this day are some dark morph Pomarine Skua's, Nothern Fulmars (sometimes they are hard to get on your yearlist! I like the way they fly...) and a Long-eared Owl southwards. If we had counted all the passerines behind the dike, another record should have been broken this day! Chaffinches.... but they aren't black-and-white.

Check the whole counting at Trektellen.org

Some more pics you can find on my Pbase.