20210925 IJmuiden

It's the 25th of September and today I (Menno) will guide Gowri and Javier for a morning bird tour at IJmuiden. As we step out of the car on the parking lot we are welcomed by a calling Dunnock and flocks of Starlings flying from their roost at the nearby lake.

A Little Grebe in the marina is showing well while they normally dive down as soon as you look at them this bird is used to the crowds walking by. A flock of Common Sandpipers fly overhead while we walk up to the pier.

On the tideline we see some White Wagtails and Meadow Pipits catching flies attracted by the sea weed. A flock of Oystercatchers flies by with a Bar-tailed Godwit among them and on the shoreline a couple of Grey Plovers are foraging.

In the large mixed gulls flock we find Common and Sandwich Terns and some Dunlin. Further up the pier we find the first Rock Pipits and Ruddy Turnstones. Here we see the first, of many, Guillemots hunting close next to the pier.

Out at sea Red-throated Divers, Common Gannets, Common Scoters regularly fly by and we continue to see more Guillemots*. At the lighthouse we spent some time watching the seabird migration. Red-throated Divers, mostly in summer plumage, continue to fly by at close range. A further out there’s a feeding frenzy of Gannets, Terns and Gulls. We’re treated with a juvenile Arctic Skua speeding by and a nice adult  Mediterranean Gull. Between the piers a pod of Harbor Porpoises surfaces at close distance.

It’s time to walk back and on our way we add Purple Sandpiper, Razorbill and European Shag to the list completing the target birds for this morning walk. Javier is so nice to buy us a coffee and apple pie which we have to share with the local House Sparrows, see our Instagram post.