Inspiring spring - Biesbosch

It has been a while, but here is my new blog. All about spring and what we can see in the Biesbosch. These pictures are made in the last days. The first Sand Martins has arrived. There are loads of Bluethroats, a lot of singing Cetti Warblers, many Dunlins (a new record of 225 for polder Hardenhoek), many Islandic Godwits (up to 350), the Avocets are starting to breed and every day is inspiring!

Sunrise at polder Hardenhoek

Oops, trying armchairbirding?

Bluethroat, most of them are already back in their territorium and singing loudly. 

Lesser spotted woodpecker, female. This is the best time to see this sneaky species.

Panic! A Peregrine after the Godwits...and Dunlins and Ruff's.

This Pied Wagtail is present along the Veerweg for a month now. It has an interesting plumage. I think it is an adult male, still moulting into full summer plumage. Note the adult-type coverts, black primaries and darkish rump and upper scapulars. Aging and sexing White wagtails is very difficult in spring (cf. Adriaens et all 2009, DB 32: 4). But the following points are better for yarrelli then alba:  

1.  the rump is blackish
2. mantle colour is dark grey to black
3. 40% of blackish colour on the mantle
4. colour of the flanck is medium grey
5. extent score of the flank is between 1 and 2 

 Here two pics to illustrate that:

29th February - Just fine bread

Since my twelfth I now Peter very well. As schoolboys, we always tried to skip boring hours in classrooms to escape for some birding. We cycled trough rainy Zeeland and into Groningen to get some new species on our lists. Currently, Peter is a busy guy, so we have to plan things.

Busy to import sightings live in the field. Where are the eyes in the field?

We planned a trip to tick some species in Zeeland and to do some birding around. The first species we absolutely wanted to see is the long-staying Gyr Falcon (1w) near Sluiskil. We had been looking for a pattern in the sightings and it seemed that te bird preffered the electricity masts west of Sluiskil. After almost an hour of searching, a car passed with some birders. They told us that the bird was just found in a mast nearby. In the previous hour, we also saw a Merlin (a split second of 'huh?!') and heard singing Mistle Thrushes. After some good lookings, we asked a French man to take a picture of the Falcon and us. The result....

Can you see the Falcon?

Some more pictures of the succesful day.

Corn Buntings, Biervliet. A rare wintering bird in Holland.

Rock Pipit - We spent some time to ID the pipits on a field in Biervliet. This Rock Pipits mantle appeared blueish, so we thought some secs that is was a Water Pipit. But the overall greyish plumage, black bill, buffy and heavily streaked flanks, creamy underparts pointed towards a Rock Pipit. I don't see many of them, since it is a species of the coast.

2cy GBBG, ringed in Norway

Another 2cy GBBG, ringed in Norway

The result of feeding some fine bread in the harbour of Vlissingen

The result of feeding some fine bread in the harbour of Vlissingen

The result of feeding some fine bread in the harbour of Vlissingen

The long-staying Glaucous of Neeltje Jans also wanted some fine bread.