Back in the final quarter of 2025, the lure of the returning drake Spectacled Eider, led to myself, Gareth B. and Dan W. putting together a plan to head over to the Netherlands for a long weekend. As it turned out, our luck wasn't in on the Eider, as the poor little fella was taken into care and after the hope of it being returned to the wild, sadly died. We decided however, to press on with the trip, with the promise of some great birding still and a few lingering rarities.
We soon picked up the hire car, a spacious Kia Niro and were on our way, weaving through the maze of motorways and out towards Rotterdam and our first birding target.
The trip list began to build and in no time, as we encountered our first White-Fronted and Egyptian Geese, plus the ocassional Great White Egret.
We arrived in Zoetermeer, just north of Rotterdam and after a bit of effort to find somewhere to park, we were scanning the Benthuizerplas lake in search of the returning drake Falcated Duck, associating with a flock of Gadwall.
The lake had plenty of birds to go through, with a number of duck including Gadwall, Teal, Shoveler, Pochard and Tufted Duck. There were also a few Oystercatcher and a flock of Lapwing, while a Sparrowhawk wizzed through, a group of 4 Ring-Necked Parakeet were seen briefly and a Cetti's Warbler sprung into life from some nearby reeds. We were though, struggling to pick out the star of the show! Thankfully, Dan soon finally picked it out, appearing from behind of one of the small islands. We headed closer and went on to enjoy some prolonged views and what a spectacular bird it was! We watched it for a good 20-30 mins pootling about, even displaying to the Gadwall on a few ocassions.
It was then time to head off to pastures new. Next up, on our way back north in the general direction of our accommodation, was the small town of Beverwijk for a short stop to see a reliable adult Glaucous Gull around a small dock / industrial estate.
On route, we added many more Whitefronts, our first Barnacle Geese and even a Spoonbill sat asleep in a roadside field!
It seemed a certainty, but the Glauc somehow gave us the slip. However, a Burger King was just around the corner so wasn't a completely wasted visit!
On then still closer to our accommodation, stopping for a longstaying Baikal Teal in a wet field and channel adjacent to the village of Oudkarspel. It wasn't long before it was picked out amongst a few Wigeon and Gadwall out in the field. The plumage was intruiging and while it was reported as a female, it seemed to show a few signs of male characteristics. Still, a Baikal it was and a new bird for me so was certainly enjoyable to see, regardless.
Before the day was out, we decided to try the far north end of the North Holland province, near to the village of Stroe in search of a couple of Red-Breasted Geese in amongst wintering Brents.
On route, it was cool to add several each of Smew and Goosander, both reasonably close in a roadside channel.
It didn't take us too long to track down a large swarm of Dark-Bellied Brents right next to the road, immediately west of Stroe and with a careful approach, we were able to park up and go through them. Sadly no RBG, but I did pick out a nice Black Brant, while there were also large numbers of Barnacle Geese in an adjacent field.
Day 2 - Texel
With the weather set fair, we left our accommodation and began our day out to the island of Texel. While the Spectacled Eider was now off the agenda, the island did promise some good birds, including a super rare asian passerine, if luck was on our side!
On our way, we decided to have another look at the general area where we saw the roadside Smew the previous day. Having bumped into a bonus Tree Sparrow, we did indeed find quite a few Smew as we'd hoped, as well as adding a lonely Tundra Bean Goose and rather surprisingly, a pair of Wood Duck!
The idylic port of Den Helder was bathed in sunshine as we boarded the ferry. The crossing was a short one, just half an hour in fact. A quick coffee and then it was time to get onto our first destination, an isloated garden just a few minutes from the ferry port. Here, we were hoping to catch up with the long-staying 1w male Black-Faced Bunting, the first ever twitchable one in the Netherlands.
On arrival, we were joined by another recently arrived Dutch birder. Together we soon bumped into the owner, who kindly showed us down to the end of his garden where he was freely letting birders in to see the Bunting. Top man!
Luck was on our side and we very quickly heard a distinctive short, sharp 'zzzit' and the Black-Faced Bunting appeared in the rear hedge.
The Bunting showed on and off for 20 minutes or so, loosely mingling with the local House Sparrows. It then melted away and failed to reappear, so we decided to head elsewhere, nicely satistified with what we had witnessed. A new bird for us all!
Next, we aimed for the northern end of the island, to look for Bean Geese, birding on route. There were of course, a few sizeable groups of Whitefronts and Dan also picked out our first Hen Harrier, a ringtail quartering a roadside field which we paused to enjoy.
As hoped, we did indeed bump into a handful of Tundra Bean Geese in the targeted area, near to the village of Cocksdorp.
This area had a sizable number of birds to go through and so we stopped for a good scan, near to a viewing screen. Birds included 3 Bewick's Swan, several Whooper Swan, a sizable flock of Barnacle Geese, Pintail and several Redshank. A fairly distant pair of hunting Goshawk put a load of birds up which in turn, revealed some Golden Plover, Turnstone and Ruff.
We paused in Cocksdorp to find something to eat and a coffee. It was also well worth popping into the birding info centre to admire the impressive array of optics and taxidermy!
Back at the car, we peered over the seawall for a scan and added a number of new species out on the mudflats. These included Knot (including a colour-ringed bird), Grey Plover, Ringed Plover, Bar-Tailed Godwit, a Sanderling, Red Breasted Merganser, Eider and plenty of Golden Plover, Redshank and Curlew.
After a short, fruitless look for roosting Long-eared Owls nearby, adding Jay & Great Spotted Woodpecker, we headed to an area called the Slufter on the west side of the island, to look for Shore Larks as the weather became much cloudier, with a bit of light drizzle.
The walk out to the dunes produced several Rock Pipit and a ringtail Hen Harrier. As we reached a bit more water, and larger area of saltmarsh, there were quite a few birds to go through. New birds for the trip included at least one Caspian Gull (1w), Great Black-backed Gull and a drake Goldeneye amongst good numbers of wildfowl and waders. The larks were proving surprisingly difficult to track down, however eventually they flew in. There were exactly 30, very fidgety Shore Larks in total (a little less than the fairly recent count of c80), never settling for long and in fact headed off further away after about 10 minutes, which was our cue to leave!
It had become very dark and drizzly by what was now mid-afternoon. So we took another drive about before finishing our day in the south of the island, by the area of water called the Mokbaai. On the way, we picked out our only Pink-Footed Geese of the weekend, with a group of 8 with a flock of Whitefronts.
The obvious highlight at the Mokbaai were the c7 Hen Harriers cruising about the dunes, (including at least 2 males) before several roosted in the large, roadside reedbed. New for trip here were c30 Black-Tailed Godwit, several Avocet, 1 Little Egret, Bearded Tit & Water Rail. There was also a sizable Starling roost, a hunting Sparrowhawk, tonnes of Pintail, Curlew, Redshank and several Eider. We thought that was it for the day's birding, however Dan added a Woodcock in the last glimmers of light that wizzed past the car just before the ferry terminal!
Day 3
For our last day, once we were all packed up, we made the decision to returm to the Stroe area, at the northern end of North Holland, to again try to connect with a Red Breasted Goose.
It was hammering it down with rain, but at least the birding was from the car! Close to the village, a few birds flew up from the roadside and turned out to be a nice little group of Brambling, the first of the weekend. We then encountered a couple of very large Brent flocks - surely holding RBG! In a word...nope! However, again I picked out a lovely mahogany Black Brant (unsure if the same as previous, or a new bird).
We headed further west, to Noorderbuurt, another spot where the geese had been reported. While we stopped at a garage we came across a very large flock of Barnacle Geese, but again nothing apparently unusual amongst them.
Around the corner, we reached the area we were looking for and were in luck, with a whole load more Brent Geese. While the first roadside group were exclusively Dark-bellied Brents, within the second we finally found what we were looking for with a cracking adult Red-Breasted Goose. In fact, we soon realised there were two!
We spent a good while here enjoying lovely views of the geese. They were very vocal, seemingly keeping in contact with each other as they busily fed. A real treat to see these beauties and we were all pleased, we'd finally tracked them down.
It was then time to head south and take the interesting 'oversea' route, straddling the border between North Holland and Flevoland provinces, in order to explore the Oostvadersplassen reserve. Our drive across the sea was pretty cool, where we noted Scaup, Red Breasted Merganser & Smew on route. On arrival at the Oostvadersplassen, we soon picked out a brief adult White-Tailed Eagle in flight, plus Whooper Swan. We parked up near the reserve visitor centre at the eastern end of Oostvaardersplassen & went for a stroll. It was pretty quiet, however we did come across our first Firecrest of the trip, as well as Water Rail and a redhead Smew.
Next, a road closure took us on a slightly longer route to a nearby lake to look for a large Smew flock. The drive served us well, with a short stop in woodland providing views of several Hawfinch, a circling Goshawk and our first two Ravens. Slightly further on2 White Stork could be seen sat up at a nest site. The smallish 'Smew Lake' held some Smew, though didn't live up to it's recent billing of some 50 birds. There were though approx 10 knocking about, as well as a flyover ringtail Hen Harrier and several Goosander on a nearby canal.
We moved on to the Oostvaardersdijk on the northern side of the reserve. A couple of convenient pull-ins allowed us to have a good scan, in the hope the Black-winged Kite reported on-and-off through the winter would materialise, however that wasn't to be. Still, we did add Marsh Harriers to the trip list (really surprised how scarce these were across the weekend), as well as a few very distant White-Tailed Eagle, a couple of ringtail Hen Harrier, Whooper Swans and some more commoner wildfowl species. Green Sandpiper and Snipe were new, while a female Scaup, several Goosander and a pair of Smew were on the sea behind us.
The wind was bitterly cold so it was time to return to birding from the car! We moved further west along the road, to Oostvaardersdiep. Here, another c10 Smew were picked out.
We went on to look at the area further west along the Oostvaardersdijk where the long-staying female Bufflehead had been hanging out. We parked up close to a large flock of Aythya and as easy as you like, there was the Bufflehead cruising around amongst the mass of Tufted Duck and Pochard, as well as at least 6 Scaup. A distant Red Kite here was the first of the trip.
There was very little birding left, yet we still managed a few further nice sightings. A stop off back further east, overlooking a good looking wet area proved productive with a handful of Water Pipit, fly-by adult White Tailed Eagle, a hunting Goshawk, a couple of distant White Stork and Great White Egret.
There ended our trip - 116 species in total and for me, Falcated Duck, Baikal Teal, Bufflehead & Black-faced Bunting all Lifers. While it was a real shame we didn't get to see the Spectacled Eider, I'm glad we persevered with the trip. It was a lot of fun and produced some memorable birding with really impressive numbers of wildfowl in particular.
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