8th November - the Grevelingenmeer

On the Grevelingenmeer two fishermen work from a small flat boat with a couple of hundred gulls in attendance, mostly black‑headed plus a few of other species. The first few catches contain many small fish which are shovelled straight back into the water ‑ much to the delight of the gulls - while bigger fish are kept aside. Later catches hold a greater proportion of large fish; since there is less waste, the gulls lose soon interest and disperse.

Meanwhile, Jim is studying a large duck which was preening on the shore a couple of hundred metres away. Detail is difficult to make out against the light but its dark cap, pale cheeks and pale underwings suggest a red-crested pochard, while its uniformly pale bill suggest an immature rather than female which has just a pale tip to the bill. There is a small feral population of this species breeding in the Netherlands, but unlike the truly wild birds, they do not normally migrate.It is not often than we see mergansers and goosanders together ‑ goosanders prefer deep fresh water in winter but are not uncommon on brackish water, while mergansers are predom­inantly marine in habitat, but favour enclosed waters including brackish ones. Hence both species are found on the Grevelingenmeer and had an excellent opportunity to study their plumage variation. We we get quite confused with ageing the mergansers until we realise that the illustra­tions in 'Wildfowl' were wrongly labelled.

Several pairs of mergansers are displaying, performing various postures including head shak­ing and jerking, wing flapping etc. Although courtship is more usual in late winter, pairs are sometimes seen in November. Here most of it was being done by first winter males - practising for the future?As we drive along, a brown rat moves ahead of us, searching for titbits amongst the boulders and rubble which formed the base of the track. It doesn't seem to take much notice of us until I try to take a photograph, then it takes evasive action. How to animals know when there is a camera around?

At the northern end of the Brouwersdam there is an extensive area of sea buckthorn and other scrub with plenty of berries. It may be a nature reserve and certainly looks impenetrable to humans. There are few birds to be seen ‑ chaffinches, blackbirds, magpies, and wood-pigeons; then a harrier flies over heading south, though we can't identify which species against the light.