British, Irish & WP Birding

The areas in red are those where the Boat-tailed Grackle has favoured, with the green dot (N51° 17’ 13.7”, E4° 12’ 40.9”) being where we saw the bird and the blue dot another favoured area. We also saw Black-winged Stilt, Garganey and Black-necked Grebes from where we saw the Grackle – all good birds to see from a British perspective

SATURDAY 26^TH APRIL 2008

We arrived at the Eurotunnel terminal at Folkestone late evening on Friday 25^th April ready to board our 10.20pm departure. After grabbing a bite to eat at Burger King, the crossing was quick and uneventful and in no time at all we were in Calais. With the continent an hour ahead, we were on our way east before midnight and within half an hour we’d crossed the Belgian border. We then continued into Holland surprisingly taking us just under two hours from Calais, then continued on through Utrecht to the east of the country where we managed to grab a couple of hours sleep in the car before dawn.

Veluwemeer, Flevoland

Despite the forecast being favourable, we woke up to rather dark grey skies and a stiff easterly blow. As we were walking to the screen (at N52° 26’ 06.0”, E5° 48’ 28.8”), one of the first birds that we heard was a singing male White-spotted Bluethroat and we then quickly located the bird singing from an exposed perch in the reeds. We then scanned out to the water and located a pink blob in amongst the hordes of Mute Swans – an escaped Lesser Flamingo looking rather out of sorts in the inclement weather. Despite scanning the area we were unable to locate any other flamingos so we headed back to the car locating a handful of Tree Sparrows en-route.

We then drove through the village of Elburg and headed along the northern side of the Veluwemeer. Common Terns were common while the weather evidently produced a passage of Little Gulls and Black Terns – super numbers of both species from our perspective with at least 200 of the former and 40 of the latter. Scanning through the swans from the cycle track at N52° 25’ 01.4”, E5° 43’ 27.1” we located our first target species – Black Swan – and found nine of them distantly on the far side of the water. Admittedly, a second-summer Caspian Gull was certainly more interesting from at least my point of view as was a decent flock of c.50 Red-crested Pochards. With a few Egyptian Geese, 3 Barnacle Geese, a Goldeneye as well as Nightingales and a Garden Warbler also located on our failed Chilean Flamingo, we were rather impressed with the amount of birds we’d seen in the area.

Ketelmeer, Flevoland

Just a few km the other side of Elburg, we were aware that there’d been a single Chilean Flamingo seen here a couple of weeks prior to our visit. With a bit of luck combined with dogged persistence, we located this lone Chilean Flamingo from the road at N52° 34’ 46.5”, E5° 48’ 12.7” where unfortunately an anonymous team member proceeded to get rather excited that we’d scored this ‘plastic’. With a handful of Mediterranean Gulls, half a dozen flyover Whimbrel, three Spoonbills and several Avocets once again we were content with the more natural birding line up. After bumping into a Dutch birder onsite who informed us of a brief Calandra Lark (a Dutch Mega) earlier in the morning the other side of the country and a Ring-necked Duck nearby, we kept our eyes on the prize and headed south-west towards Utrecht.

Chilean Flamingo Ketelmeer, Holland (Lee Gregory)

De Heulse Waard, Houten, Utrecht

After winding our way through the outskirts of Houten, we parked our car on the top of the embankment at N51° 58’ 44.3”, E5° 13’ 50.8” and scanned the meadows adjacent to the river quickly locating 14 Bar-headed Geese. Again I was rather surprised with the elated reaction one of our team members gave when they first clapped their eyes on these plastics. Several Egyptian Geese were seen here while a couple of White-fronted Geese, a lone Barnacle Goose and a couple of rather ugly looking hybrid geese were also present. The calls of displaying Black-tailed Godwits made us feel as though we were birding in a foreign land (away from the Nene Washes at least). With negative news on the Grackle and distant views of the Black Swans at Veluwemeer earlier in the day, we headed the short distance to get some more views of these Australian beauties.

Natuurplus Breeveld, Woerden, Utrecht

Six Black Swans were easily located on the main gravel pit here (N52° 05’ 13.2”, E4° 55’ 19.2”) – we made a note that two of the birds were last year’s offspring probably meaning that we looked at them for too long. The weather by now had improved dramatically and the day was becoming rather warm. So, despite the negative news, we headed off west to Antwerp.

Black Swan Woerden, Utrecht, Holland

Kieldrecht/Verrebroek

To describe the traffic en-route as poor was an understatement and matters were made worse by a call from Raymond De Smet alerting us to the reappearance of the Boat-tailed Grackle. Raymond went beyond the call of duty and stayed on the bird while we battled through traffic and eventually arrived on site mid afternoon. On arrival we quickly saw this lost, presumably ship-assisted female where it favoured flooded fields and an area of reeds viewed from N51° 17’ 13.7”, E4° 12’ 40.9”.

Boat-tailed Grackle Kieldrecht, Belgium (Lee Gregory)

Raymond told us all about the birds in the area and, while watching the Grackle for a couple of hours, we saw quite a few decent species. Black Redstarts were singing from the adjacent buildings and Tree Sparrows appeared plentiful compared to the UK while Yellow Wagtail, Whitethroat and Grasshopper Warbler were amongst the passerines we noted.

A Black-winged Stilt showed well on the small pool adjacent to the grackle late afternoon and a drake Garganey fed actively in front of us. Black-tailed Godwits were displaying in near abundance while the area was full of Black-necked Grebes – a small pool nearby held at least fifteen birds in full breeding plumage. Added to this at least eight Mediterranean Gulls, a Taiga Bean Goose and Bar-headed Goose in amongst Greylags, we’d had an extremely enjoyable afternoon in Belgium and were somewhat surprised by the quality of overall birding we’d had during the day.

Black-necked Grebe Kieldrecht, Belgium

Happy with our day out, we drove back the couple of hours to Calais and did what all Brits do when on the south side of The Channel – stock up with booze. And, then, after the usual efficient Eurotunnel service we were back in Folkestone mid evening allowing me to get back to my flat in London to watch Match of the Day.

Acknowledgements

A special thanks to Arthur Geilvoet who, despite his disdain for the Dutch species we were targeting, supplied me with some precise information on the ‘Dutch Plastics’ and to Raymond De Smet for firstly finding the Boat-tailed Grackle originally, locating the bird on the day of our visit and then staying on-site until we arrived to ensure that we saw the bird. Martijn Bunskoek, Chris Bell, Hugues Dufourny, Graeme Joynt, Pieter Vantieghem, Dani Lopez Velasco and Steven Wytema also supplied me with some useful information for this short trip.