With news of a Snowy Owl in Texel, the Netherlands, in mid November, a group of Spanish birders started thinking about doing a quick trip in December to see it, in case it lingered. When a second Snowy turned up, this time in Belgium, we all agreed we couldn’t miss this opportunity to see not one, but two, of the most stunning birds in the world, especially considering the very cheap Ryanair flights from Madrid to both Eindhoven and Brussels.
Although I had already seen the species a couple of times in Boston in 2001, it had been a long time since then, and I thought the species really deserved this trip. A few days before our arrival, 2 Hume’s Warblers were discovered in the Netherlands, a species most of us hadn’t seen before, so, if everything went well, the trip had the potential to be a great success.
After a few phone calls, a group of 7 birders decided to make the trip. We arrived in Brussels airport in the early morning of the 7th, and left in the evening of the 9th.
Both the Snowies and the Hume’s are still present as I write this report, so it may be of help to those going to see them this month.
Acknowledgements
Local birders Jan Kelchtermans, Steven Wytema and Pim Wolf were of great help, giving us plenty of updated information on the latest sightings before and during our trip.
Our friend Stephen Menzie improved, as usual, the english of the report.
I would advise everyone to take a Tom Tom GPS navigator. It was essential, taking us to the right spot without losing any time or getting lost, which is very important if you consider the short amount of time we had to see all the species. You can find the GPS waypoints for all the species on this webpage:
We arrived very early in the morning at Brussels Airport, and, after hiring 2 cars, we headed straight to Uitkerke Weiden - Tureluursweiden Uitkerk (Belgium), 51.302, 3.129, the nature reserve where the young male Snowy Owl was. We finally arrived at the spot, after 2 hours of driving. Once there, we asked several birders in the area, but they hadn’t seen the owl yet. We desperately started looking for it on the nearby fields, which hosted large numbers of Pink-footed, Barnacle and Greater White-fronted Geese, until, finally, someone found it!! Very excited, we all ran to the place where the owl had been discovered, but, unfortunately, the views of the bird were really bad. We could only see a small part of the white body, which could have been anything, between the reeds. We decided to spend all day long at the spot, until the bird moved, so that we could have better views. After some time, we eventually found a place where the views were a little bit better, and now the entire head and part of the body could be seen. However, we agreed to wait until dusk, as other birders told us this was the time when the owl started to fly around. So, by 4 pm, many birders started to gather at the place, and, finally, at about 4.30, the Snowy Owl left its roosting place and flew to a nearby perch. We had absolutely stunning views of the very white young male there. Over the next hour, the owl made a couple more flights, which let us admire the bird in full detail. A truly magnificent species!
With no light left, we left the place, extremely happy with the sighting. Mission accomplished!
So now it was time to head north, towards Den Helder, (NH), Holland: the harbour where the ferry to Texel departs.
The journey took more time than what we expected, and, being really tired, we decided to sleep at the same Stayokay hostel in Haarlem we had used on our previous trip to the country in February, as it was just one hour from Den Helder.
It was cheap, 23 euros per person, breakfast included. The address is Jan Gijzenpad, 3, Haarlem.
8th December 2008
Ferries from Den Helder to Texel depart every hour, from 06:35 to 21:35, every Monday to Saturday.
We took the 7.35am ferry, arriving on Texel at 8 am. We headed north, towards the area where the huge, young female Snowy Owl roosts and haunts, at Texel - Zeeburg - Ganzenreservaat (NH), 53.143, 4.896. On the way, some of us saw a nice male Goosander.
We found the Snowy from the main road as soon as we arrived at the exact spot, and then took a public track to get closer.
The bird was roosting in a field behind a small pond, and didn’t pay much attention to us. We had very good, close views for almost an hour. Some of us also climbed up a small hill near the track to see the ocean and the tidal flats. From there, we saw good numbers of Common Eiders, Brent Geese, Red-breasted Mergansers, Common Goldeneye, Oystercatchers, 1 Black-throated Diver (all scarce birds in Spain) and also a small group of 7 very obliging Snow Buntings delighted us.
Our next destination was an area of fields called Eierland - Oorsprongweg oost (NH), 53.126, 4.867, located just 1 km from the owl spot, which hosted big numbers of Tundra Bean Geese and a small group of Bewick´s Swans.
No less than 1000 Tundra Bean Geese were seen, as well as a nice group of 15 Bewick´s Swans, with both adults and 1st winters present.
With news of the Hume´s Warbler at Sneekermer being seen in the morning, we decided to leave the island in the 1pm ferry to try to arrive at Sneek before 3.30pm. Texel was full of birds, and we really enjoyed our time there. Unfortunately, we didn´t have much time there to spend birding, but I´m sure we will come back for several days of relaxed birding in the near future.
On the ferry back, we had good views of 2 Common Seals.
Once in the spot, we met a couple of Dutch birders who were also looking for the warbler. We all split up, and after half an hour, one of the local birders found it and Toni alerted the rest of the team. We all went to the place where he had seen it, and after some time, we eventually found the bird. We had extremely good, close, views of this classic Hume´s Warbler, calling constantly, for the next 2 hours.
A female Smew on the lake was a good addition too.
So now, with all the main targets for the trip seen, we thought seeing some Bohemian Waxwings would be nice too. The biggest group was in Assen, which was not too far away from Sneek, so we slept at a Stayokay hostel in Sneek.
9th December 2008
We woke up very early, in order to be in Assen at first light. The coordinates of the exact place where the waxwings were are: 52.998, 6.571
The place itself was a parking lot with some trees, where the waxwings feed. After some time, the group of 11 Bohemian Waxwings flew in and landed in a small tree with berries, where they gave good views. Brilliant birds, although we saw them much better than in Finland!
Afterwards, it was time to head south, towards Brussels, as our plane left in the evening. However, we had some time left to make our last stop, at Oudeland van Strijen (ZH), 51.754, 4.535, where a group of Lesser White-fronted Geese was wintering.
There were thousands of Barnacle and Greater White-fronted Geese, but we eventually found a nice group of 10 Lesser White-fronted Geese, with 8 adults and 2 1st winters, which were not too far away from the road. And this was the last species of our very successful trip to the Low Countries.
