Yesterday evening we headed south from Friesland to take another look at Flevoland. The scene at the power station is much the same as before, so we move on to the Oostvaarderplassen which is mostly frozen over, with shelduck, avocet and teal roosting on the ice.
On the other side of the road a large area of open water, set aside for recreation, is free of ice and well-covered with a variety of wildfowl including four smew redheads. These are close to the shore and allow us to study them carefully for a few minutes, then the sound of distant guns cause most of the birds to take to the air. At least one of the smew has the dark lores of an adult female, while others have the chestnut lores of first winter birds. The main arrival of smew to North Sea countries is in December so these are quite early comers.
We visit another of the hides on the reserve, and along the approach path through the reeds we find wrens, dunnocks and bearded reedlings. This hide is a conventional oblong one, and was full of Dutch birders. Most of them, like us, use the Peterson field guide, and as this has the names of birds in English, Dutch, German, French and Swedish regardless of which edition you have, it makes conversation about birds much easier.
The avocets, or kluut, are popular for the moment because they are easy to see from the hide. Several thousand duck, mostly teal, roost in the middle of the open area, occasionally taking to the air in a swirling dance if they felt threatened. Small groups of geese come and go in the distance. A black‑tailed godwit lands in front of the hide, and then wishes he hadn't as he skids and slips on the ice.
A buzzard‑sized hawk flies past on heavy wing-beats and the Dutch birders recognise it immediately as havik ‑ goshawk. It is finely barred grey and white underneath, and plain grey‑brown on top. We are told that since the species was given protection in the Netherlands numbers have increased dramatically.
As we drive along the south side of the Oostvaarderplassen the two cars in front of us suddenly stop and don't seem to know whether to pull in to the left or right. The cause of the chaos is two adult and one young roe deer feeding on the dyke where they can be seen over the top of the reeds. They watch the cars curiously but must feel they are at a safe distance for they soon resume grazing.
From a road across the polder we see geese feeding out in the fields. A check with the telescope reveals several hundred whitefronts on grassland and a hundred or so greylags on ploughed land. Grey geese have relatively long and powerful bills, so they can take large seeds and dig down for roots. These geese actually perform a service to the farmer by cleaning harvested fields of small pieces of roots and tubers, or missed grain, that would otherwise grow into rogue plants in the next crop. Potatoes and sugar beet are the main crops to benefit, and several times we've seen recently harvested fields that seem to be a seething mass of grey geese bodies.
The view at Harderbroek is pretty much the same as last Sunday with a ringtail harrier putting in one appearance and plenty of wildfowl on the open water areas. We head on south toward Zeeland.
On the other side of the road a large area of open water, set aside for recreation, is free of ice and well-covered with a variety of wildfowl including four smew redheads. These are close to the shore and allow us to study them carefully for a few minutes, then the sound of distant guns cause most of the birds to take to the air. At least one of the smew has the dark lores of an adult female, while others have the chestnut lores of first winter birds. The main arrival of smew to North Sea countries is in December so these are quite early comers.
We visit another of the hides on the reserve, and along the approach path through the reeds we find wrens, dunnocks and bearded reedlings. This hide is a conventional oblong one, and was full of Dutch birders. Most of them, like us, use the Peterson field guide, and as this has the names of birds in English, Dutch, German, French and Swedish regardless of which edition you have, it makes conversation about birds much easier.
The avocets, or kluut, are popular for the moment because they are easy to see from the hide. Several thousand duck, mostly teal, roost in the middle of the open area, occasionally taking to the air in a swirling dance if they felt threatened. Small groups of geese come and go in the distance. A black‑tailed godwit lands in front of the hide, and then wishes he hadn't as he skids and slips on the ice.A buzzard‑sized hawk flies past on heavy wing-beats and the Dutch birders recognise it immediately as havik ‑ goshawk. It is finely barred grey and white underneath, and plain grey‑brown on top. We are told that since the species was given protection in the Netherlands numbers have increased dramatically.
As we drive along the south side of the Oostvaarderplassen the two cars in front of us suddenly stop and don't seem to know whether to pull in to the left or right. The cause of the chaos is two adult and one young roe deer feeding on the dyke where they can be seen over the top of the reeds. They watch the cars curiously but must feel they are at a safe distance for they soon resume grazing.
From a road across the polder we see geese feeding out in the fields. A check with the telescope reveals several hundred whitefronts on grassland and a hundred or so greylags on ploughed land. Grey geese have relatively long and powerful bills, so they can take large seeds and dig down for roots. These geese actually perform a service to the farmer by cleaning harvested fields of small pieces of roots and tubers, or missed grain, that would otherwise grow into rogue plants in the next crop. Potatoes and sugar beet are the main crops to benefit, and several times we've seen recently harvested fields that seem to be a seething mass of grey geese bodies.
The view at Harderbroek is pretty much the same as last Sunday with a ringtail harrier putting in one appearance and plenty of wildfowl on the open water areas. We head on south toward Zeeland.
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