20211123 Full Day Birding at the Delta

On the 23rd of November 2022 John and his guide Menno recorded 86 species of birds on full day hunting target birds.

The first on the list was Tundra Bean Goose so at sunrise we started at the location where about 2000 geese winter. As we arrived we saw many geese flying around but cruising along the plowed sugar beet fields no geese in sight. Field after field that looked promising we only saw some Greylag and Barnacle... How could this be? Finally we got the answer.... gunshots. The geese went to the other areas far away so we decided not to loose time and accept the situation. Still we got a good sight of another target, Redwings.

Next up were the coastal birds. We connected with some nice Common Scoter drakes we could tick off the list. Here we also found 2 Great Northern Divers, a Black- throated and a handful of Red-throated Divers. The area is rich with small fish that attract Common Guillemots, Razorbills, Slavonian-, Red-necked-, Great-crested Grebes and many Red-breasted Mergansers. A big flock of 56 Snow Buntings flew overhead and we got very good sightings of a Rock Pipit (target) bathing next to the car.

Top of the target list was the Red-breasted Goose and luckily it had been found just a couple of days before. On our way we got to more targets in the pocket, 1.500 Pink-footed Geese and a Whooper Swan near Delft. Near The Hague we looked for the Red-breasted Goose but the low light and scattered geese, some also hidden in the ditches made it very hard to scan the area, here 3 Cattle Egrets suddenly flew by. We decided to get a higher view with the sun on our backs and it worked out better as after 15 minutes the red breast in the low winter sun suddenly stood out!

While the sun almost set we tried our luck, we were on the roll after the poor morning start, and got treated to a lovely Tawny Owl sitting in the opening of a tree hole with her eyes open scanning the area with the last fading light of the day.